After Action Report
by LoganAlpha30
Summary: Set after the final battle as Harry takes the lead and explains what happened during the trios search for the horcrux's with some romance, humor, and anger thrown in as their family and friends react. Chapter 5 now up. R/Hr, H/G. Thank You.
1. Chapter 1

**AFTER ACTION REPORT 1**

 **Author's Note: I don't own any of the characters, as if I did then Ron/Hermione would have started far earlier.**

Hogwarts

Harry had never really thought about what he was about to do past thinking that it had always seemed to be so far off. He had for so long put all of his strength and effort into defeating Voldemort. He had never really put much thought into what would come after, since for so long he doubted that he would even have an after to worry about. McGonagall and Mrs. Weasley had been asking him about the past year ever since the battle had ended. Harry felt that it was up to him mostly to try to explain everything, as he wasn't quite sure how much Ron and Hermione would want to help. He felt that Hermione would probably be able to explain things much better than he could however in the days after the battle she had mostly locked herself in the library with Ron, researching how to safely undo what she had done to her parents for their own good. For his part Ron seemed perfectly content with allowing Harry to be their voice, with the exception of what had happened during the destruction of the locket in the forest.

He had pulled Harry aside and into Dumbledore's old office to tell him that he felt that Hermione should know what had happened first, but that he couldn't get the words out whenever he tried. As the two had then sat there for what felt like hours a few of the portraits had made subtle nods towards the pensive. And so that night Hermione had followed Harry up the steps into the office and taken her first trip into the pensive, with Ron sitting very nervously at the foot of the stairs and fighting back the urge to bolt. Harry had thanked Dumbledore's portrait for telling him how to get the right memory for the task as Hermione experienced the memory, for both Ron and Harry had agreed that it was a truth better told to her in private lest everyone else experience it right there and then as well.

When she had emerged from the pensive Harry couldn't quite discern her reaction as she looked caught exactly halfway in between her heart breaking with every breath and utter fury, almost as bad as the night that Ron had returned and saved Harry in the pond. Harry had started to say something but she had stormed off down the stairs, grabbed Ron by the scruff of his neck and dragged him off to the first open classroom that they came to, slamming the door shut with all of her might. Harry stood as close to the door as he dared, hearing them both shouting in between fearfully silent moments. After what felt like an hour Harry had noticed that his stomach growling and gone down to the Great Hall to eat. He was almost completely done eating when the pair had finally slipped into the room, looking the worse for wear, worse but happy. Harry thought about asking them how things had gone, their eyes red and still a bit wet, but Hermione had stopped him by asking him to pass her a piece of pie, her lips just as puffy as Ron's.

It wasn't until much later in the common room before Harry could get any of the details, as Ron had been pulled away by a very guilty looking Percy to help to try and cheer Mrs. Weasley up, even if only a little. Hermione had awkwardly explained to him that she and Ron had gone through everything she had seen and more, finally getting seven years of pent up feelings and frustrations out into the open. Whenever harry would push a bit on exactly what that meant she would only blush to the tips of her busy hair and change the subject as fast as possible. Though the next morning Harry had come down the steps from the boy's dormitory to find his two best friends snogging by the fireplace just as they had done during the battle. Harry had thought about interrupting them again but had decided to give them some more time and try one more time to get his hair to lie down. When he had come down to the common room again he'd found them gone and they didn't turn up for several hours, with both very red and they had even finished each other's sentences a few times, something that lead to more than a few chuckles from Ginny. Two days later Harry discovered that he could put it off no longer and so had called them all together and just did it.

"So…where should I start," Harry called out softly with a slightly nervous stutter to his words as he gripped the edge of his seat tightly and glanced around the room, looking at everyone's face and feeling some small bit of relief that they all seemed to be about as unsure of what was about to happen as he was.

"It is usually common for one in circumstances such as this…to start at the beginning Mr. Potter," McGonagall calmly answered as she got herself settled in her seat for a long talk and then tried to steady herself for what she thought that she was about to hear, expecting it to be less than pleasant.

"R…right, I should probably then say that this all comes down to knowing what a horcrux is…Hermione," Harry nervously started to answer as he half turned in his seat to glance over at Ron and Hermione, who were both giving him scared and nervous but supportive looks, before he took a chance.

Harry visibly flinched under the scathing look of shock that passed across Hermione's face as she whipped her head around to face him.

"Huh…what, Harry…fine…a horcrux is of the darkest of magics, a horcrux is simply an object that a witch or wizard has concealed a part of their soul in, usually through murder," Hermione sputtered in complete disbelief before she dug in her heels, took a slow breath try and calm her nerves, and then picked her head up and spoke plainly and clearly, hoping that all would understand. At the end of her words there were more than a few plainly audible gasps of shock and alarm and Professor McGonagall could only close her eyes and shake her head in dismay, fighting back the urge to tear up.

"Dumbledore gave me the mission to find and destroy the horcrux's last year before he…died," Harry explained without really focusing his gaze but rather staring at first George's knees and then Mr. Weasley's before turning his gaze to Kingsley's knees.

"And I am going to guess that due to the length of time that the three of you were gone that Dumbledore did not tell you where these horcrux could be found, or perhaps even how many there were," Kingsley commented with a weary and grim expression as he leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms across his chest and waited for Harry to answer. Harry thought about his answer for a few seconds, noticing that both Percy and George edged forward to the very front of their seats and looked surprisingly interested.

"There were seven….seven that we knew of anyway, before the eighth one of course…me," Harry breathed out with a great deal of difficulty as he had to take a deep breath and let it out as he was finding it very hard to admit to being the last horcrux, knowing that it would probably also bring up bad memories for more than just himself. To say the least Harry would remember the reactions of those seated around him for the rest of his life as they all let out collective gasps and cries of shock and great alarm.

"We had no idea where most of them were…or even what they were, kind of a trial and error thing," Ron cut in across Hermione before she could speak with a nervous shrug of his shoulders and somber edge to his words as he vividly flashed back to their days of aimless wanderings in the tent in his mind. For a few moments Harry glanced at everyone else in the room in an attempt to gauge their reactions, as expect Ginny looked a bit confused while Mr. and Mrs. Weasley appeared to be even more worried if that were possible.

"Which is part of the reason that it took us so long, that and after we had to flee when the Ministry fell and the Death Eaters attacked the wedding…we hadn't planned on leaving so soon," Hermione tried to explain as simply as she could, feeling that the finer details of what had happened during and after their sudden exodus from the wedding was for their memories only unless they all agreed to tell more.

"We had to leave with barely the clothes on our backs, if not for Hermione and her quick thinking we wouldn't have had anything else to wear…we thought that we were safe, but then we ran into a couple of Death Eaters and barely made it out of that alive," Ron added softly as he remembered that Hermione had packed jeans that were almost too small for him and how much trouble he'd had getting his wand out for the fight in the café. He was about to go on when the more than likely new Minister of Magic spoke up.

"What…how…where," Kingsley demanded angrily as he started to hurry up to his feet but stopped when McGonagall put a hand on his arm and coughed loudly with a rather stern look in his direction, seeming to Harry that although she was gravely concerned about the news she was more curious about what had happened afterwards and didn't want the trio to stop.

"After we left the wedding we had to get off the streets and think, we ducked into a café on Tottenham Court Road, and stumbled into them…they came in after us, we had no idea at the time about the jinx," Harry shrugged with a nervous smile before he felt Ginny reach back and lay a hand gently on the small of his back and then lay her head on his shoulder, snuggling up closer to him and not caring who was watching.

"How on Earth did you find out about it though, only members of the Order really knew that it was even possible…," McGonagall demanded while looking none to please that the trio had gone through as much as they did before they'd even gotten their feet wet so to speak as she herself could not fathom the answer as beside her Hagrid pulled out his blanket sized handkerchief and blew his nose loudly.

Harry felt like a lead weight had been thrust into his stomach at the question, knowing full well that the full answer would not be a popular one and not reflect well on Ron without the whole story. He could only hope that he'd be able to explain it all thoroughly before getting a response.

"Well um…," Hermione started to answer before she visibly blanched and looked first to Harry and then to Ron, hoping that she could get an idea as to how they wanted to answer that particular question as the subject of Ron's having left months earlier was something that she'd hoped wouldn't come up until much later in the discussion.

"It was Ron…he told me…after he uh…," Harry quickly declared, though he couldn't help but snap his attention down to his hands in his lap, as he could feel the heat of all of their gazes on him and unasked questions in their throats and sincerely hoped to be rescued from such an embarrassing and potentially volatile moment.

"But why go to Grimmauld Place, surely you must have known that it would have been one of the first places that the Death Eaters would have searched," Arthur cut in, sensing their discomfort and making a mental note to come back to it later, as he sat up straight and laid a hand on his wife's back to calm her as if he could sense the million questions that were building up within her and decided to head her off at the pass.

"We didn't really have anywhere else to go Mr. Weasley…," Hermione answered calmly at first before she threw both Ron and Harry a nervous glance, glad that neither seemed to have an interest in contradicting her in the slightest.

"Hermione, Arthur and I know that you are not really out daughter however after all of these years we feel that you might as well be, a part of our family…especially if you and…well, if you want…that is, we would never dream of trying to get in between you and your…," Mrs. Weasley remarked with a slightly impatient sigh and soft and tired smile as she stood up and walked across the room before she finally came to stand directly in front of Hermione and Harry, oddly not giving much heed to her own children sitting right next to them both, finally leaning forward and laying a hand on both of their shoulders as Ron and Ginny looked on in confusion.

"Thank you Mrs.…Mum," Hermione began to reply with a warm smile before she started to tear up and could barely finish her words as she was interrupted from what she expected to be being pulled into a giant hug by the older woman.

"I hope you know that the same goes for you as well Harry, unless that is you really love staying with your Aunt and Uncle, in which case we would understand…," Mr. Weasley pointed out with a very honest and loving look in his eyes before he pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and began to dab at his eyes at the smile that Harry and Hermione sent back his way.

"Oh no, I don't know if I ever want to see my Aunt and Uncle ever again, I brought everything that really mattered with me to the Burrow, and everyone that's ever mattered to me are here right now….except…," Harry rushed forward with as he sat up a bit straighter in his seat before he watched Mrs. Weasley collect herself and then go back and sit down beside her husband, wondering if she should have just situated herself in between Harry and Hermione instead, even if only for the time being.

"I am sure that Remus and Tonks would have been here if they could have helped it but…such is not the case unfortunately…for far…far…too many," McGonagall somberly muttered under her breath as she went as she had started off speaking strongly but her voice then seemed to fail her as she went and she finally had to bite her lip at the end to keep from crying. Harry and everyone else in the room stayed silent for a few moments as they all remembered and silently mourned those that they had lost so painfully before he or anyone else could speak up again.

"For some time we used Grimmauld Place as a hideout, always expecting Snape or Death Eaters to burst through the door at any moment, after a few weeks we started to relax just a bit and get to work planning our next move," Harry jumped right back in as he sat up a bit straighter in his seat for a few moments before slouching again at the knowledge that he had faced a bit of what Sirius had being pent up in Grimmauld Place for those long months. At least he hadn't been alone.

"Watched of course on a daily basis by an ever revolving cast of Death Eaters, they couldn't get it but they'd stand across the street in that small patch of grass and watch the house all day long in shifts, we had to apparate on the top step under the invisibility cloak so that they wouldn't see us," Ron grouched with a shiver as he remembered being pent up in the old house, hating every minute of it, as he felt that had he not had Harry and most especially Hermione there with him he would have gone stark raving mad in a matter of days.

"We found out about Snape being named as Headmaster of Hogwarts there, the Muggle-born Registry…," Harry added with a sincere tone of dread and unhappiness in his words as he remember the anger that had welled up within him the moment that he had seen the news, and at the fear at what it would more than likely mean for Hermione if she had not been with them as all of the others in the room looked still a bit outraged that the Registry had even existed in the first place.

"Ron promised to say that I was his cousin and teach me his entire family tree so that I could pass any test that I was given…before I reminded him that since he and I were with Harry it would never come to that," Hermione furthered Harry's explanation through a small yawn before she glanced briefly at Mrs. Weasley and gave her a smile and then beamed happily at Ron, who nervously smiled back as his ears went red.

"And what happened to one of the horcrux's, turns out it was a locket that we had found while cleaning, we'd had a copy of it but the real one…Mundungus Fletcher had nicked it shortly after Sirius' death, sold most of what he'd taken for whatever he could get for it, we set him as straight as we could," Harry muttered unhappily as he slid forward to the front edge of his seat and set his elbows on his knees to keep himself upright before he felt Ginny's palm on his back making small circles as she looked visibly upset and a bit confused.

"Umbridge had the locket," Ron spat out angrily as the venom in his words made it clear how he felt about his former teacher, a feeling that both Harry and Hermione shared with him on equal terms.

"So naturally the three of you decided to infiltrate the most heavily guarded wizarding location on the planet all by yourselves," Kingsley commented with a rather stern look in his eyes as he crossed his arms across his chest and scowled heavily at the trio, already not really fully liking what he was hearing but knowing full well that there was nothing that he could do about it.

"Well when you say it like that…but yeah, that was the idea," Ron nervously chuckled back as he tried to make it light of the situation while at the same time admitting without actually saying it about how dangerous their actions had been, hoping that everyone else in the room would feel like he did that they hadn't had a choice in the matter at the time.

"We had no choice, we had to obtain the horcrux," Hermione quickly agreed as she struggled to keep the smile at going along with Ron on her face and not allow her true feelings about Umbridge to show up instead, though her composure was about to break when Hagrid spoke up.

"How though," Hagrid exclaimed with a look that told Harry that he was on the edge of his seat and completely enthralled by the story, though also very angry that such a task had been placed on Harry and the others in the first place.

"It felt like it took forever to plan, we didn't know where Umbridge's office was until after we got into the Ministry, then we got separated," Harry admitted with a shiver as he felt his mouth get more than a bit dry before he was bolstered by Ginny giving him a one armed hug.

"But how did you do it Harry, with all of the heightened security that Minister Thicknesse had put in place after he took over," Percy demanded with a thoroughly irritated at the terrible breach in security edge to his words even though he knew that it had been for the best before Ron rolled his eyes and answered.

"Polyjuice Potion, obviously," Ron announced as he sounded as if to him it was the simplest thing in the world, though his amusement was short lived at the sight of the looks of concern and confusion on his parents' faces.

"Second or third time's the charm I guess, still tasted like dirt," Harry joked with a sour smile that he soon noticed that he alone was wearing as the others looked either confused or surprised, as if they weren't sure whether to take him seriously or not. Only Ron and Hermione stood by him and nodded their agreement and support.

"Then…then that would mean that we may have crossed paths…," Mr. Weasley exclaimed as he realized that it could have happened during their assault on the Ministry, and he appeared to be both excited and very worried by the idea, fervently wondering if they had met who Harry had been.

"We did Mr….long enough for you to give me a piece of your mind when you thought that I'd done wrong…it was scary," Harry started to quickly answer with an eager to answer smile before he couldn't help but blush and feel more than a bit awkward at how he would explain the reality of what had happened during their trip into the Ministry all those months ago.

"Blimey," George exclaimed with a total look of shock on his face, which Harry was glad for as ever since the battle the only expression that he had seen on the surviving twins face was one of complete and utter sadness.

"I hope the people we replaced didn't get in trouble for it…I'd hate to think that the bloke that I was…," Ron chimed in with an almost haunted expression as Harry could tell that he was thinking about the fact that Ron had replaced a man whose wife had been put on trial by Umbridge in a sham of a trial and had confused Ron for her husband before the Polyjuice Potion had worn off.

"They made it out Ron, they had to, we gave them as good of a head start as we could," Harry supported him softly as he tried to reassure Ron that the people whose places they had taken had made it out alive and had not been punished for their efforts as Harry smiled a bit at the sight of Hermione laying a hand on Ron's knee and giving it a squeeze. With a nervous smile Ron laid a hand over top of Hermione's and interlocked their fingers as best he could, earning him a subtle blush from Hermione and raised eyebrows from Mrs. Weasley and Professor McGonagall. Harry's smile grew even more when he looked back out at the group and noticed the look shared between the two older women and he had the feeling that both women looked pleasantly pleased about it, though they held their tongues for the moment.

"I don't believe this," Percy exclaimed in a panic as he seemed to suddenly have a bit of trouble breathing, like in someone who just had a terrible shock and was having a hard time dealing with it, though after several tense moments he was able to calm himself down enough to take a drink of water and not choke on it.

"Me either, that was very dangerous Mr. Potter," McGonagall remarked with a skeptical look of disapproval as she crossed her arms across her chest and made Ron and Hermione's smiles instantly disappear under her intense look.

"Yeah…but since when did that ever stop us before," Harry tried to joke with a forced bit of amusement in his voice as he made a doomed to fail attempt at lightening the mood before his old Transfiguration teacher turned her gaze towards him, echoed in Mrs. Weasley's look of disapproval, and he hung his head and went silent.

END OF CHAPTER 1

Author's Note: Thanks again to everyone for reading and reviewing this and the other chapters. As always reviews, comments, and questions are greatly appreciated. This story will take a few chapters and is basically the trio sitting everyone down to tell them about what happened during their time away. The more romantic pairing moments will come later and as always I'm a fan of Ron and Hermione and Harry and Ginny. I don't even read any pairings that pair Hermione with any other guy; it just doesn't work to me. The movies took out a lot of the Weasley family's best moments and a fair amount of the buildup to Harry and Ginny, mostly to push Harry and Hermione as the two stars of the series. I still can't figure out how tall the characters are supposed to be in the end.

I view Harry as being a couple inches shy of being six foot tall, and if he views Ron as clearly taller than him as it appears in the books that he does then Ron would have to be several inches above six foot tall, so Hermione would very clearly be much shorter than him. It's kind of funny in the books how at the start of every year Harry pays more attention to how Ron has changed but doesn't really bother with Hermione other than she still has a lot of frizzy hair. I don't really remember Harry ever actually being angry at Ginny like was with Hermione at times over the years. I loved it when Ginny sent Harry a get well soon card in third year and a lot of Ron's anger is all bluster, as his anger seems of often disappear at the drop of hat at certain points.

I'd think that Mrs. Weasley and McGonagall would be fine with Ron and Hermione together and may have even expected it over the years. I had Mr. and Mrs. Weasley want Harry and Hermione to call them mom and dad if they wanted to as back in the fifth book Mrs. Weasley admits that Harry isn't her son but that he might as well be, she thinks of him as her seventh son already. And Harry and Hermione will technically be her kids when they marry Ginny and Ron anyway. More fun to come. Thank You.


	2. Chapter 2

**AFTER ACTION REPORT 2**

 **Author's Note: I don't own any of the characters, as if I did then Ron/Hermione would have started far earlier.**

Hogwarts

Harry called a break for a few minutes to allow everyone to get something to eat and stretch their legs a bit, though he was glad that Ron and Hermione stuck close to him. He knew that they were very far from completing the whole story of their last year and they hadn't even gotten to the messy parts yet. Harry knew that he'd need their help to get through them and he feared what the reactions of some of the others would be. When they got started again the crowd listening to the story had grown a bit.

"So then how did you get the horcrux," Bill asked softly with a fair amount of concern in his voice as he slipped an arm around Fleur's waist and pulled her close.

"I took it from Umbridge after Harry stunned her," Hermione answered with a small smile as she still got shivers every now and then when she remembered how they had finally gotten the horcrux from Umbridge.

"Hermione even made a copy of it so that…so that Umbridge wouldn't know that it was even gone, brilliant thing to do," Ron added with a proud smile as he gave Hermione a quick hug, and given how close the two were Harry could see that Ron took the opportunity to give her a quick kiss on the cheek, earning him a warm smile in return before she spoke again.

"Thanks Ron," Hermione replied softly, mostly to Ron, though the clear blush on her cheeks caused Harry to feel a sense of great happiness for his friends suddenly well up within him. He would probably have said something to them but Ginny lightly elbowed him in the ribs just then and he knew that it was time to move on and not draw any more undo attention to himself.

"Then the real fun began," Harry stated sharply even though he tried his best to keep any fear or bitterness out of his voice as he caught Ginny giving him an odd look before he was interrupted from across the room.

"Who's having fun," Charlie wondered aloud with a curious look on his face as he hurried forward and sat down next to Percy, elbowing his younger brother just far enough to the side to make room though he was scowling heavily.

"It wasn't really fun, more like several minutes of nerve wracking absolute terror," Hermione announced strongly as she kept herself from shuddering again at the nightmare of their escape and what had happened to Ron afterwards.

"Everything went wrong the second that we tried to leave the Ministry, one of the Death Eaters managed to get a hand on Hermione and unfortunately he was left at Grimmauld Place breaking its protections…so we couldn't go back there," Harry explained with a rather sour expression and tone to his words as he slid back in his seat a bit before he smiled sweetly at Ginny, hoping to bolster her spirits somewhat if he could.

"So where did you go," Dean asked as he started to crack his knuckles seemingly just for something to do before he stopped when he noticed Professor McGonagall lightly glaring at him from over the top of her glasses.

"Same place that they held the quidditch world cup a few years ago," Ron answered before Harry or Hermione could get a word in edgewise as he finished speaking he couldn't help but begin to laugh nervously and turn to both for help.

"So then you got away unscathed...terribly lucky," Kingsley commented with a deep sigh of relief, as he seemed to have been on the verge of getting an ulcer from worry even though the trio were sitting across the room from him and looking just fine given the circumstances.

"No…not exactly, Ron got splinched pretty badly," Harry countered as he hunched his shoulders a bit and tightly gripped the edge of his seat, almost to the point of his knuckles turning white, before he spat out the truth and waited for the explosion that he was sure was to come. He didn't have to wait very long.

"What…Ron," Mrs. Weasley exclaimed as she exploded up out of her seat and was halfway across the gap between them in the room before Bill and her husband could wrangle her back into her seat.

Harry expected to go on but was interrupted then by first McGonagall and then oddly enough Percy who both wanted to check on Ron's arm. Soon they were both joined by Mrs. Weasley, who had finally broken free of her husband's grasp after giving him a rather stern look and she hadn't seemed to be satisfied that Ron was truly alright until she had closely inspected the scar top to bottom for herself and decided that her youngest son would live.

"Still got a bit of a scar, Hermione tried her best but…," Ron finally remarked softly after several mostly silent moments as he pulled his hand from Hermione's side and set it on his arm where he had been splinched those long months earlier, fully accepting that he'd always have the evidence of that day to remind him of how bad things had gone for the trio.

"It was horrible…there was just so much blood," Hermione agreed with a very solemn expression as she sat hunched over with her hands in front of her before, after several silent moments of just staring at them, she noticed that they were shaking just like they had on that terrible day and she quickly clasped them together in the hope that no one else had seen.

"And that's saying something…after that…we started taking turns wearing the locket…one of the worst bloody decisions I've ever made…things only got worse after that," Harry hurried onwards in an attempt to try and help Hermione cover up the fact that her hands had started to shake as he kept his own hands tightly squeezing his seat to keep them from doing the same.

"Terribly worse," Hermione added so softly that Harry and Ron only barely heard her because they were both sitting so close to her before Ron cut in.

"It was my fault, neither one of you forced me to wear the bloody thing, I'm the one responsible for…," Ron stated plainly, as if he were telling someone that water is wet, as he sat up straight in his seat and pointed back at himself with his thumb, looking very guilty.

"We all made mistakes, none of us are completely innocent over that Ron…we both said things that we didn't really mean…," Harry shot back, more out of a feeling that he didn't want Ron to get on a roll of putting himself down again than any actual anger, and he was glad to see that although Hermione flashed him a warning look she seemed to understand his intentions, at least in part.

"The locket affected us all in the worst way," Hermione explained softly before biting her lip and seeming to have to do that to keep her eyes from watering as Ron started to slide an arm around her but stopped halfway towards that end and seemed to descend into a funk before speaking.

"But why me most of all, I know I'm not the strongest and all…I don't need any reminders," Ron started to wonder aloud with a very depressed scowl before he glanced briefly over at George, acting as if for a moment he expected another bit of sarcastic humor from his older brother before he realized what he was doing and went on, "never thought that I'd be that weak and…."

"Stop it Ron, not another word…you are not weak, I didn't fall…I mean maybe there was a good reason that the locket affected you more than Harry or me," Hermione cried out so loudly that everyone in the room jumped a bit in their seats as she balled up her hands into fists and got halfway up to a fully standing position before she caught herself and finished through a very deep blush just as Harry sought to move the discussion forward as quickly as possible.

"Maybe it was the brain that attacked you," Harry offered up with an unsure but hopeful smile and shrug of his shoulders as he could feel the growing tension in both himself and the room as he knew what was coming up in their story and wasn't happy about getting to that point or how exactly to talk about it without causing a massive argument.

"Hmm…Madam Pomfrey did say that thoughts could leave deeper scarring than almost anything else…," Hermione interjected with a very deep in thought look to her as she tried in vain to fully take her emotions out of the picture and just think logically before she very nearly jumped out of her seat again as her favorite teacher spoke up.

"Will one of the three of you please answer us…just stop talking amongst yourselves and tell us what happened…please…," McGonagall demanded with a clearly irritated tone to her words and very cross expression as she scowled at the trio, who all quailed underneath her intense glare before any of them could find the nerve to speak up.

"Alright…the locket was a horcrux so it fought against us each and every time that we wore it, with Ron it made him…see things, hear…think things…dark things, things that weren't true…then he and Harry got into a really bad fight and before any of us knew what was going on Ron he…he…," Hermione struggled with each and every word of her answer as everyone in the room could tell that as she went she was building up to a truth that seemed to be literally causing her physical pain before the tears came fast and furious and she couldn't go on, dropping her head into her hands as Ron tried his best to help her without making things to obvious.

"He got the wrong idea about…things…and…he left, disapparated away and was gone…Hermione she tried to stop him but she didn't understand why he was so angry and she…she cried…a lot…for weeks…," Harry quickly tried to get out even though with every word his confidence in his answer began to ebb away as fast as a table full of food in front of a ravenous Professor Slughorn. Harry could only cringe in fear and anticipation of what was to come before the dam broke around him.

"RONALD WEASLEY…YOU…YOU…YOU…," Mrs. Weasley screeched out so loudly and angrily, Harry almost expected her to go instantly hoarse from it all, as she bolted up out of her seat and began to storm across the room towards her youngest son before once again a very red faced Mr. Weasley and Bill flung themselves onto her and kept her from going any further than halfway across the room.

"YOU LEFT THEM…YOU…YOU…YOU…," Ginny shrieked almost as loudly as her mother as she caught Harry off guard and had rushed past him before he knew that she was even standing.

"HOW COULD YOU," Percy growled from his seat beside George before he began to furiously fumble through the pockets of his robes in most likely a search for his wand.

Harry wasn't sure who seemed to be more angry at Ron, everyone in the room but he and Hermione seemed fully intent on tearing Ron apart. Ron, for his part, seemed fearful but almost resigned to his fate as he stood up and took a step forward, looking like he was fully ready to accept his punishment for his crimes. He looked like a man walking calmly and deliberately to his own execution without the slightest hint of self-preservation. Harry knew that things could get out of hand fast if some peace wasn't restored and he had just opened his mouth to try to get everyone to calm down as he rose up to his feet before Ginny set herself upon her closest brother. With a flurry of movements like a woman possessed she began to punch and kick every square inch of Ron that she could get to, with Ron flinching under the assault but not really even bothering to put up a fight. Harry decided to wait a few moments, thinking that she'd get it out of her system and sit back down, but when she reached back for her wand he sprang into action.

"Ginny no," Harry exclaimed loudly in alarm as he threw his arms around her and tried his best to drag her away from Ron, who looked like he'd probably be sporting a few fresh bruises the next morning, before he saw George physically restraining a fuming Percy.

"I'm sorry…I…," Ron could only mumble back as Harry knew that he was trying to find something to say but his taller friend was understandably struggling to find anything to say that would actually help the situation.

"Sorry will not be enough this time Mr. Weasley, I cannot believe that you would ever do something so…so…so…," McGonagall stated with such venom in her words and fire in her eyes as she began to walk across the room towards Ron, whipping her wand out in the blink of an eye, that for a moment Harry wasn't sure if his tall friend was going to burst into flames or be struck down from poison. He was sure that either he or Hermione would have to step in and do something before things got out of hand but Ron trumped them all first.

"Foolish, stupid, idiotic, unconscionable, vile, evil…please Professor go on, I don't think that you or anyone else here could possibly come up with something to describe what I did that I haven't already thought of and decided that they were all…," Ron suddenly spat out loudly but sounding as if he was saying it under his breath as he locked gazes with his old Transfiguration professor and said every word while fighting the urge to either cry or hit something before he instantly went silent as he felt Hermione's fingernails begin to painfully dig into his shoulder. He just hoped that she hadn't drawn blood.

"That's ENOUGH," Hermione exploded with such a shrill voice that for a moment Harry was transported back to the night in the tent that Ron had returned, though with the obvious difference being that this time Hermione was not angry at Ron, but rather angry in his defense. Harry hadn't even noticed that she had leapt up to her feet and suddenly positioned herself in between Professor McGonagall and Ron, almost daring her old teacher to make the next move.

"Miss Granger I…," McGonagall gasped back as she recoiled a few steps more out of shock than any actual fear as everyone else in the room also looked stunned, especially Hagrid, who very nearly dropped his large tankard of mead with his eyes as wide as dinner plates.

"Don't know the whole story and are jumping to the first possible conclusion that came to mind, you all are…yes it was wrong of Ron to leave, but Harry and I have long since forgiven him and moved on…and I for one won't hear anything more on the subject…understood…understood…and Percy, you don't want to talk about abandoning people in their time of need…do you…," Hermione finished for her teacher looking just as determined as Harry had ever seen her and he was glad that for once such a look was not aimed at himself or Ron, though if he were to be honest he would have to admit that he did feel sorry for his old teacher. Out of the corner of his eye Harry could see Hagrid almost have a heart attack at Hermione's sudden outburst. Harry watched Hermione carefully as she sat down and couldn't help but grin like an idiot at the look that Ron gave her and her reaction to it. Her toothless smile stretched almost from ear to ear and her face shone as red as Ron's hair for a moment before it was interrupted.

"Totally Hermione, but I have a question…when Ron left he…couldn't go home and he couldn't come here to Hogwarts so…," Dean immediately relented with his hands raised in defeat as McGonagall slowly sat back down, still trying to understand Hermione's actions, though Harry saw Fleur beaming happily at the act. It was strange to Harry to see all of the angry glares that had been cast straight at Ro to suddenly turn to fear and be aimed at Hermione instead.

"I've been wondering the same thing, where did Ron go after he left," Mr. Weasley said softly as he was clearly trying to move things forward and not let anyone else be given enough time for an emotional outburst.

"Sorry Mum…Dad…he came to stay with us," Bill very nervously announced while looking very anxious as he slowly raised a hand up to shoulder level and turned towards his parents, Fleur ducking back behind him so that she didn't have to see her mother-in-laws reaction.

"Bill…what…," Mrs. Weasley gasped out unhappily in total surprise and shock as she looked back and forth between her oldest and youngest sons, trying in the span of a few seconds to figure out if she had missed something during that time.

"Sorry Mum, but he gave us a good reason to stay at home, I doubt Aunt Muriel even missed us," Bill apologized again as he looked very guilty and sheepish before Fleur gave him a smiling hug and then turned back towards the main group as the discussion continued.

"So then our dear brother just loafed around all day, a burden to…," Percy offered up softly, his voice still full of disdain, as he glared as lightly as he could at Ron for fear that Hermione would explode at him again and not stop at just using her words.

"Not really, he was even more sullen than usual…and that's saying something…sorry…he barely touched his food most of the time…read through every book in the house to before he suddenly disappeared on Christmas morning, he was there when we all went to sleep and gone by the time that we woke up," Bill calmly answered after letting out a deep breath and giving Fleur's hand a strong squeeze as Ginny looked on with concern before she cut in.

"But then how did…he…find his way back to Harry and Hermione," Ginny snarled out loudly as it was clear that she had far from forgiven Ron right there and then and sent a glare towards her big brother that strongly reminded Harry of some that Mrs. Weasley had sent after the twins.

"Long story that we'll get to after a bit Ginny…promise, but first like I said after Ron left it felt like a death in the family, we barely spoke most nights…," Harry tried to get across to her without causing any more problems as he pressed forward into a timeframe of which he really had no interest of ever talking about again if at all possible.

"Harry actually kept taking out the Marauders map and watching you walk around here at Hogwarts Ginny, I think that he was looking for Ron as well but he never saw his dot…we finally resorted to taking out Phineas Nigellus' portrait that I put in my bag while we were planning for the Ministry…just for someone different to talk to, he told us about what was going on here, your efforts against Snape," Hermione said as she slid herself as close to Ron as she could without sitting on his lap, though to Harry she looked quite tempted to, and finally contented herself with sliding her hand down Ron's thigh before she tucked her fingers under his knee and held firm.

"Then we decided that it was time to go to Godric's Hollow and look around…so we did, placed some flowers on my parents grave, met Bathilda Bagshot…we should have known that something was wrong but I think that…we just wanted…no…we needed…something…to go right that we were desperate and didn't listen to our fears…the snake…Nagini, was inside Bathilda…," Harry continued before any of the others could ask more questions as he tried to momentarily squeeze his eyes tightly shut and not see flashes of that whole ordeal that he still felt very silly and guilty about.

"Kinds of magic that no one thought possible," Kingsley breathed out softly as he reached up and lightly scratched his head, with many in the room feeling more than a bit sickly at how dark Voldemort and his followers had gone in their quest for power.

"We barely got out of there in time before Voldemort arrived, Nagini bit Harry just before we left and I had to use a Severing Charm to get the locket off of him…it left a mark…Harry's wand was broken as we left so we then had to share mine, then we ended up in the Forest of Dean, I went camping there once with my Mum and Dad when I was younger and…it was the safest place that I could think of on such short notice," Hermione interjected more to get off of the topic that Kingsley had started than the idea that she actually wanted to talk about their flight from Nagini's attack and their near miss with Voldemort before Harry spoke up again.

"We were at our wits end…then I saw the doe…," Harry practically mumbled out so softly that most of those assembled could barely hear him, causing Ginny to prod him to say it again and he did, though all without sounding very convincing or looking up.

"The what…doe…," Hagrid blurted out as he looked totally confused but also very interested because of the mention of an animal, all the while looking like he was struggling to find something, anything, pleasant to talk about. Everyone turned to look at Harry as they eagerly awaited his response before his immediate reaction was to blush as his stomach growled loudly.

"What I'll start with after we eat…I'm starving," Harry announced with a slightly in pain expression as he stood up, took Ginny by the hand, smiled at everyone and then left them all staring and gawking as he hurried out of the room with Ginny trying to keep up and not trip over his feet.

END OF AFTER ACTION REPORT 2

Author's Note: Thanks again to everyone for reading and reviewing this and the other chapters. As always reviews, comments, and questions are always appreciated. Harry is wanting to eat supper at the end of this chapter, using meal times to break up the story just works for me. Still can't read Harry and Hermione or Draco and Hermione stories, also hate pairing Ron or Hermione off with random people that they really had no interaction at all with in the books. I hate it when writers change who Rose's father is and make it Harry instead of Ron, the books already often seem to cut any accomplishment or achievement that Ron gets down as quickly as possible like him being a prefect and winning the quidditch cup where Harry and Hermione didn't see him do it. I find it funny that people forget that Ron knew how to pick a lock with a hairpin at the tender age of twelve, could drive a flying car by himself for hours on end, knew what airplanes were and what they were called, had the idea that Lockhart was making all of his accomplishments up long before Harry and certainly Hermione did and figured out that something was up with Hermione in third year before finding out about the time turner unlike Harry who had no clue until he found out at the end of the book.

I still wish that we could have seen Lupin and Sirius finding out why Snape really hated James, also wonder how James and Lily would have taken it. In school James and Sirius would have been described as bullies with Lupin either a coward or an enabler, not wanting to say anything lest they stop being friends with him or out him to the teachers and students. Ron can be abrupt and rude at times but much of the ways of dealing with people that most of us learn in school Ron didn't as growing up pretty much the only people that he had to interact with were family unlike Harry and Hermione who had gone to school for several years. In this chapter I had Hermione stand up to Professor McGonagall and others who were understandably angry at Ron and I had her show more affection towards Ron and he to her.

The next chapter will pick up after the meal and have what comes next. This story will probably be about four chapters long or maybe five, depending on how things go with the next chapter. Still also wonder why in the fifth book McGonagall didn't wake Hermione as well when Ron's dad got attacked, and I like a bit of Hermione liking to get a bit racy with Ron after they got together, nothing overboard but fun to see that she has that side to her, though a side that she'd only share with Ron. Thank You.


	3. Chapter 3

**AFTER ACTION REPORT 3**

 **Author's Note: I don't own any of the characters, as if I did then Ron/Hermione would have started far earlier.**

Hogwarts

Harry had never eaten so slowly, trying to balance his ravenous hunger with the uncertainty and fear bubbling up within him. He knew full well the portion of their hunt that they were now coming up on in their talks and he dreaded about whether or not he would be able to get all of it out, as he already feared going to sleep every night. He had so far been lucky enough to not be plagued with nightmares, as he knew that Hermione already was, though he guessed that he didn't have long before he was. Her nightmares had begun shortly after leaving Malfoy Manor and Harry knew that only Ron seemed to be able to calm her. He'd just need to sit in a chair near her bed and remain there all night, often dozing off for most of the time, and waking up with a stiff back. While Ron would never mention it in Hermione's presence he'd abused the practice heavily when alone with Harry before their trip to Gringotts. Harry never asked about the conversations the two had before Hermione had gone to sleep, feeling that it was private between the two of them.

Harry tried not to look at Ginny too often as he ate, not because he didn't like looking at her but more because he knew that she seemed to know that something bad was coming in the story. He dreaded having to describe what happened when he and Ron had fought against the locket and then the horror that had been Malfoy Manor. Even though it had not been his fault Harry still felt that telling the others about what Bellatrix had done to Hermione would be akin to making her relive it, and he wasn't sure that he wanted to do that to her. Harry felt that he couldn't talk to Ginny about any of this, at least not yet. He was sure that when he was done telling the main group of people their story that Ginny would have a laundry list of things that she wanted to talk about and Harry knew that she deserved to have him answer those questions honestly. Harry decided that the time for keeping secrets from those that he loved was over.

Though he had a prodigious appetite Harry had found it odd for Ron to miss a meal that was sitting in front of him. Hermione had pulled him away by the hand the moment that they had broken for dinner and no one had seen them since, and that was almost an hour ago. Harry guessed that Hermione had done it mostly to keep Ron safe from being hexed by any number of those assembled despite her threats. It wasn't until just before the food was cleared away that the two emerged again, hand in hand and looking very hungry, though thoroughly pleased about something and they couldn't stop blushing deeply and grinning at each other. Harry could tell that Ginny had questions for the pair but he hadn't let her say a word before he leapt up out of his seat and pulled her away with him. He knew that his best friends would join the next stage of the story once they'd finished eating, and Harry guessed that it would take Ron a matter of seconds to finish off his portion and he doubted that Hermione would eat very much given what they were about to discuss.

"Here we are again," Professor McGonagall announced with a visibly anxious sigh as she got herself situated back into her seat, though Harry noticed that she had conjured up a pillow to sit on as her wooden chair must have become too uncomfortable earlier.

"Right…well after we barely escaped Voldemort and the snake we were more shaken than ever, then late one night I was sitting at the entrance to the tent trying my best to stay awake when I saw it…," Harry cleared his throat before continuing as he took a deep breath after the first word and then launched into the next phase of his telling their story.

"Saw what," Hagrid interrupted as he appeared to already be on pins and needles about the next startling development in their story and Harry had to fight back the urge to laugh at it all.

"The doe Hagrid…it was a silver doe," Harry calmly explained as he sat up straight in his seat and tried to keep himself in check as he felt that he had probably gone over this part of the story before but loved Hagrid to much to say anything about it.

"Aren't any silver does, there's…," Hagrid pointed out as he seemed to be going through the list of all of the different kind of deer in his head and he quickly found that he wasn't coming up with any silver does being amongst them.

"It was silver Hagrid, I didn't realize at first that it was a patronus, though I didn't know anyone living that had a doe as a patronus," Harry cautioned his old friend softly as he tried to keep any traces of mockery or skepticism out of his voice or expression lest he offend one of his oldest and dearest friends without cause.

"And even though he didn't know who had cast the doe Harry just up and rushed off after it without bothering to wake me up or anything," Hermione quickly added with a less than pleased at Harry's actions expression as she crossed her arms in front of her chest and sat down next to him, with an obviously well fed Ron right behind her.

"Sorry, I don't know what came over me, I just knew that the doe wasn't a threat somehow," Harry replied as he tried to laugh it off with an uneasy shrug and smile under Hermione's intense glare of disapproval before he was momentarily saved by another voice.

"So the doe lead you to the sword," Mr. Weasley guessed as he looked very eager to learn the whole story and was trying to work it through in his head of what had to come next.

"Not exactly, it lead me to a small pond and by the light of Hermione's wand I saw that the sword was laying on the bottom," Harry countered nervously as he shifted a bit in his seat and remembered that there had been plenty of possible ways to get the sword out of the pond but he had chosen the coldest one for some reason.

Harry took a moment or two to allow those assembled to digest his words and for the first time he started to take a good look at each to try and figure out if one of them would want to argue about something. Hagrid appeared to be totally into the story and the least likely to interrupt outside of exclamations of surprise or alarm however Mrs. Weasley and Professor McGonagall both seemed to be storing a litany of questions away in their minds for later. Harry gulped hard at the thought of how many hours he'd probably have to sit under their intense glares and answer for anything and everything, even if only to keep the peace.

"And naturally Harry just stripped down to his almost nothing and dove in after it, nearly got himself killed," Ron guffawed loudly at first, before a brief sharp scowl from Hermione calmed him down noticeably and he frowned at the end as he thought of what would have happened to his best friend had he not come along when he did.

"Well naturally the cold water Harry, that was terribly…," Percy explained with a knowing smile as he slowly nodded his head up and down before his face fell suddenly at the look on Harry's face that told him he was wrong.

"It wasn't the water that almost killed me but the bloody locket, damn thing tried to strangle me before I got close to the sword," Harry spat out angrily with what he hoped was only a slight sneer as he mentally kicked himself for having not taken off the locket before he had dived into the pond and felt glad that Ron had been there to save him.

"That's when Ron saved him, brilliant…," Hermione beamed with pride as she only briefly glanced around the room before saving the majority of her look for Ron, whose ears blushed a deep red but softly smiled back and looked like he wanted to lean in closer to her at the same time that she was leaning in closer to him but both stopped when they felt all eyes upon them.

"Yeah, he left the horcrux on and it tried to choke the life out of him…I waited for him to surface but once I saw that he wasn't I ran over and dove in after him…fully clothed no less, got him out the pond along with the sword," Ron said softly as he relayed what had happened as all the while he tried not to let it show how nervous and embarrassed he was at having all eyes intently upon him, as at his side Hermione used her hair to cover up the blush on her cheeks as she stared down at her knees.

"Wow," Hagrid gasped out loud in clear alarm as he seemed to be oddly worried that Harry wouldn't make it through the swim in the pond even though he was sitting in front of him at the moment.

"Then came that damn locket," Ron angrily snarled with a very clear tone of intense loathing in his voice as Harry was surprised to see that Hermione was near tears and he couldn't help but get upset at the memories of what the locket had tried to do to Ron.

"Er…yeah, a horcrux see…Voldemort put a piece of his soul in every one of them so…," Harry began to hurriedly rush into so that Ron wouldn't dwell on the locket any more than he needed to and hopefully he wouldn't get asked anymore questions on it.

"When you try to kill them they fight like mad to kill you first," Ginny offered up with a look that told Harry that she'd never been more willing to be wrong than right in her life before she noticed that most were looking oddly at her and she rushed to finish with, "like with Riddle's diary from my first year."

"Precisely, and the locket fought Ron particularly hard," Hermione nodded quickly in agreement before she went on just as she saw that both Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were looking as if they each had a question on the tips of their tongues.

"I don't know why it always affected me more than Harry and Hermione…it just did," Ron questioned with a great look of self-disgust on his face as he started to ball both of his hands up into fists in frustration before Hermione took one of his fists in hers and effortlessly got him to slacken his grip and she interlocked their fingers with a very meaningful look in her eyes that she locked onto his.

"Again, we never should have worn the thing in the first place," Hermione spat out almost as angrily as Ron, causing more than a few in the group to give a start at the sneer on her face before both her and Ron's expressions softened in unison.

"True, so after we got over the shock of seeing each other again I knew that Ron should be the one to destroy the locket, and like Hermione said the piece of Voldemort's soul trapped within it fought…hard…it was…I can only describe it as…," Harry solemnly agreed as he slowly shook his head in dismay and then faked a smile to a concerned Ginny as he soon found himself struggling to think up the right word to fully describe what the horcrux had done to Ron before he had destroyed it, but nothing was coming to mind.

"Torture," Hermione breathed out softly through quivering lips and closed eyes as she was quickly overcome by the memories of what she had seen in the pensive and how much it had hurt her to see Ron go through that and then not saying anything about it in his own defense against her justified verbal onslaught.

"Torture…bloody," Hagrid exclaimed loudly in a stunted gasp when he got caught halfway in between being furious and feeling a bit queasy at the deep level of dark magic that Harry and Ron and Hermione had fought against, especially given how young they were. Harry could tell that Hagrid was thinking that after the revelation about the lockets attack that he wasn't sure if he wanted to hear the rest of the tale as much as he had when it had all started.

"Oh Ronnie," Mrs. Weasley howled with eyes full of tears as she couldn't help herself and she slipped out of her husband's grasp and raced across the room until Ron could do nothing but stand up so that when she got to him she could envelop him in a rib crushing hug as she sobbed against his chest. Harry and Hermione both looked on closely, though with very different reactions. Harry was glad to see the swell of motherly love for Ron though glad that it wasn't him getting crushed. For her part Harry noticed that Hermione appeared to be overwhelmed with happiness and relief at the sight, her eyes wet and on the verge of tears.

"Ah Mum…I'm fine, I was stupid to think any of what it said was true," Ron replied with a very awkward blush as he hugged his mother back with one arm while he lightly patted her on the back with his other hand, feeling just a bit embarrassed at the show of affection.

"Are you sure that you're okay son…wait…what did it say…," Mr. Weasley began with a clear look of concern as he rose up to his feet and took a few steps forward before he remember something that Ron had said and grew very concerned.

"He's fine Mr.….Dad," Hermione answered with an anxious smile as she wiped away a few tears and hoped that the day in which she would be reunited with her own parents was not terribly far off as she started to get up to her feet. Before she could say really anything else Mrs. Weasley released her hold on Ron and switched to a very startled Hermione, pulling her into a very strong embrace. Mr. Weasley looked on with some relief but still held more than a fair bit of concern as to any spells or enchantments that the locket may have done, and he knew that his worry would not be fully abated until he knew the whole story.

Harry slid back in his seat, more so that Mrs. Weasley wouldn't get any ideas about giving him one of her famous bone crunching hugs, but only so that he would retain the use of his lungs long enough to tell the rest of their story. Across the room Percy looked more than a bit sick at the thought of what it must have been like for Ron, and even George showed some emotion as he glanced to his side and Harry could only guess that he was wishing that Fred was sitting there instead of Dean and Neville. Harry waited a bit longer for Mrs. Weasley to be done giving hugs and sit back down along with Ron and Hermione regaining the necessary ability to breathe normally before he continued.

"I didn't learn until later of course how the sword had come to be at the bottom of the pond, Snape had put it there pretty much under Dumbledore's orders, something about the sword needing to be taken under conditions of need and valor…or close to that," Harry recalled some of what he had seen in his trip into Snape's memories just before the end of the battle, feeling that the rest of it was something that he was going to keep to himself and not reveal to all.

"I'd say Mr. Weasley's actions that night fulfilled both of those requirements, admirably," McGonagall commented with a brief and momentary look of pride before the stern look that she usually wore quickly replaced it and Harry wondered for a second if it had actually changed at all or if he had just made it up in his mind that it had.

"Just got lucky really, Harry's heavier than he looks," Ron recalled softly, giving Harry the side eye with a not to subtle grin, before he went instantly silent at the scowl that Hermione sent his way. Though he could tell that where in the past she would be angry with him the scowl that she sent him now was one more of frustration than any actual anger.

"Thanks mate…I think," Harry called out, thoroughly unsure of whether he should be laughing or growling at Ron, before Hermione sensed his confusion and pressed on as fast as she was able to.

"Anyway, after they destroyed the horcrux Ron and Harry brought the locket back to the tent to show me…I was…less than enthusiastic about Ron's return," Hermione explained slowly as it was clear to Harry and Ron that she was nervous about telling what had come next even though she had been completely justified in being angry but to Harry she now seemed to think that perhaps she may have gone a bit too far. At the end of her words she frowned sadly and turned her head away from Ron, though only momentarily as he reached over and gave her a quick one armed hug.

"Hermione's voice got so high that I thought she was going to shatter my glasses…sorry," Harry interjected as he tried to bring a little bit of levity to the proceedings with a nervous laugh, one that no one else in the room joined him in, before he went silent again as Ron spoke up.

"Not like I didn't deserve it but…," Ron added with a pretty glum frown as he hung his head and began to idly kick at the ground with his shoes, making him appear like he was sulking over his actions.

"But then who cast the patronus…and how did Ron find his way back," George asked after having stayed silent for most of the story with his elbows on his knees and looking more tired than any of them, though Harry guessed most if not all of that was because of the loss of Fred.

"Snape cast the patronus on Dumbledore's orders and Ron found his way back…," Harry replied with a tone of regret as he realized that Snape was the only one that he hadn't had a chance to talk to after learning the truth, leaving Harry to wonder if his old Potions Professor's portrait would be up with the other Headmasters in due time.

"With this," Ron furthered, sensing Harry's uncertainty, as he reached into his pocket and pulled the Put-Outer out before he held it up in front of him for all to see, trying not to grin like a fool the whole time.

"The Deluminator," McGonagall announced with a slight hint of confusion in her words though she covered it well before she went silent as several people in the room looked to her to continue and explain further, but she seemed to have no interest in doing so.

"It doesn't just turn the lights on and off, somehow it aided Ron in tracking us no matter where we went, he wouldn't even know where he was going when he used it but the Deluminator would bring him to us…," Hermione cautiously began to explain with her hands clenched tightly into fists on her lap, though not because she was angry or that she didn't believe the story but more that she still hadn't figured out how it all had happened herself and that bothered her, before she took a large swallow and then continued before anyone could speak again, "He said that he'd clicked the Deluminator after he heard my voice come out of it and he heard me say his name and talk about what happened to his wand back in our second year…there was a blue light like a portkey, it went into him and was how he found us."

Harry expected an immediate reaction of either disbelief or astonishment from Professor McGonagall and others. But what we got was a slow burn of both reactions. Hagrid seemed to be completely lost and looking around at everyone in turn as if he expected and hoped that they would explain it all to him. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were deep in discussion with their oldest son and Fleur, leaving Harry to only catch a stray word here and there about what they were talking about. Percy looked to be trying to get George to engage him in a conversation but the lone twin didn't seem to have much interest, rather he seemed to care more about Dean trying to walk a visibly confused Neville through it all and catch him up on anything that he may have missed. Unlike the others around them Kingsley and McGonagall only shared brief glances at each other, maybe to be paired with a raised eyebrow or nod of the head towards the trio, before the most likely next Minister of Magic cleared his throat and spoke.

"To you individually I think Miss Granger," Kingsley stated with an eerily calm tone of voice and without the slightest hint of any emotion other than absolute certainty on his face as he smoothed out a few wrinkles in his robes.

"What…me," Hermione blurted out looking confused and unsure of what Kingsley meant, though she couldn't help but blush a bit and glance first to Harry and then to Ron, whom she seemed to be having a silent conversation with him all without actually saying anything at all, just from small movements of their eyes and facial muscles.

"It's the only part of that which makes any amount of sense as to the how it could be possible," McGonagall explained softly with the faintest traces of a smile just beginning to curl up the corners of her lips before she seemed to realize what she had almost done and her almost grin turned into a frown if not scowl in a heartbeat.

"Okay…you lost me," Ginny exclaimed with a flourish of her hands and shrug of her shoulders as she scowled back and forth between McGonagall, Kingsley, and Harry, who could only smile and shrug his shoulders in the hope that she'd understand that he didn't understand it either.

"I believe that the answer would go something like this, the Deluminator was one of Dumbledore's inventions that as we know turns the lights on and off, well if one was to expand the definition of light a fair bit then it could perhaps be used to describe someone that one would have very strong feelings for…," McGonagall cleared her throat softly before she answered, sounding as if she were still trying to work some of it out as she went but seeming to like where it was that she was headed with it all and at the end she leaned back in her seat and smiled warmly at Hermione for the briefest of seconds.

"Feelings," Percy replied as he was starting to think out loud while trying to work his own way through what McGonagall had said before Harry saw understanding dawning on his face and the black sheep of the Weasley family finally turned his head and gawked at Ron and Hermione, as if he'd just now realized that they were there.

"Romantic feelings, the light of one's life…or something along those lines…if you believe that sort of thing," Kingsley joked with a sly grin and a quick wink to Harry before he continued with a voice that made it clear to Harry that he was trying to sound authoritative and certain of his words even though he left some wiggle room at the end.

"I'm…I'm the light of…," Hermione choked out through a clearly quivering lower lip, her eyes full of unshed tears, as her cheeks started to turn more and more red before she hazarded a brief glance over at Ron, who pretty much returned the look except there were no tears in his eyes. Both of his ears however were as bright red as his hair though.

"Busted…heh…," Ginny proudly stated with a grin that stretched from one ear to the other as she pumped her fist in triumph against her side a few times and Harry couldn't help but join her in grinning as he watched his two best friends, off in their own little world, for a few moments before turning away and giving them a bit of privacy.

"I think that it's mutual," Dean joked as loudly as he dared with a sly glint in his eyes as he gazed across the room at Ron and Hermione before he couldn't help but laugh right along with Neville as nearby a disgruntled looking Percy slapped a few galleons into George's palm.

"That would make the most sense, right Harry," Bill snickered with a side grin that he flashed to Harry with a slight nod of his head before a confused Harry glanced over at Fleur, who couldn't help but look happier, at the development for Ron and Hermione, than Harry thought that she had ever been outside of her own wedding day.

"Er…sure, anyway the next day Ron told me about the jinx about saying Voldemort's name and all," Harry awkwardly began his reply as he tried not to blush himself before his mind could only think of pressing on and answering a question that he had been posed earlier and explaining how he and Hermione had come to learn of the lengths that the Death Eaters had gone to in their search for the trio.

"All while Hermione was giving me the cold shoulder…, before she wanted to go and see ole Xenophilius Lovegood," Ron shrugged with an almost bitter smile before he got a light elbow in his ribs from Hermione to not dwell on that part of their story any longer and move on before she had to step in and say something about it.

"Lovegood, why would you three want to talk to him," Mr. Weasley asked as he looked very much confused to the trio before Harry cut in just as Ron was about to laugh and Hermione sensing that smiled a bit to sweetly and dug her fingernails into Ron's arm, which stopped him just in time.

"We needed answers about the Deathly Hallows, but right now they're not that important, the whole trip was a mess from the start," Harry grumbled impatiently as he still wondered a bit why they had even gone there in the first place, although he knew that they had gained valuable information during the trip, his last words were true.

"How so," McGonagall responded as she sat up straight in her seat and smoothed out a small wrinkle in her robes before Ron let out a soft laugh.

"First that bloody awful tea," Ron grouched unhappily as he looked like he very much wanted to vomit at the mere memory and even Harry and Hermione could have admitted to their stomachs having a slight tingle at the memory before Hermione shook the thoughts from her mind and stepped up.

"The Erumpent horn that he thought was…what was it…," Hermione remembered aloud with a clear look of displeasure as she thought back to how she had tried to correct Xenophilius and how he had steadfastly refused to believe a word that she said, and to top it all of he had called her not unintelligent but painfully limited, narrow and close-minded. She couldn't help but scowl at the last few words that he'd used to describe her as she didn't think that she was any of those things.

"A horn of the Crumple-Horned Snorkack…what…you remember something like that once it almost kills you," Ron muttered unhappily before he noticed that Hermione and several others were looking at him oddly and he finished his reply with a sly grin and a quick shrug of his shoulders.

"It almost what…Mr. Weasley," Kingsley staggered through as he seemed to not be completely sure that he could believe his ears and he looked intently at the trio, as if he expected one or more of them to break and admit that they had not been telling him with the truth.

"Xenophilius told us all about the Deathly Hallows after Hermione read from The Tales of Beedle the Bard, then he said that he was going to get Luna but…fool sold us out, luckily Harry figured it out so that we didn't get completely caught by surprise…the Death Eaters started firing off spells…the horn got hit…it exploded, Hermione was brilliant…had me put on the invisibility cloak so that they'd see that Xenophilius had been telling the truth about Harry being there and then we disapparated away just in the nick of time," Ron cautiously explained, with several furtive glances over towards Harry and Hermione, as he paused ever so slightly several times as he was seemingly giving them both an opening to interrupt and correct him if they thought that it was necessary. But neither did and Ron ended it all with a relieved smile and a very appreciative look to Hermione, who didn't miss it.

"I can't believe that Xenophilius Lovegood would sell you out, that he would sink so…," Dean replied with an angry glare as he balled his hands up into fists and was surprised that after everything that Luna had told him about her father that he would go and work against the trio like that.

"He didn't have much of a choice Dean, the Death Eaters had taken Luna…Xenophilius did it all to try and get her back," Hermione quickly stated with a pleading tone to her words as even though she was angry at Luna's father for doing what he did she could understand some of it and so couldn't feel as badly towards him as some of the others could.

"Still doesn't make it right," Harry grumbled mostly under his breath as his voice was overshadowed by others in the room as various smaller conversations broke out amongst the others, with none of the trio really bothering to try to follow any of them.

"No…no it does not…," Hermione agreed with a very solemn frown as she hung her head for a bit before she leaned over against Ron and laid her head on his shoulder, happy that he then slid an arm around her waist and pulled her close, an act totally missed by everyone else in the room but Harry.

"What came next…well…I'll start with that tomorrow morning, otherwise I'll have nightmares…again," Harry announced softly after a deep breath as he interrupted the various ongoing conversations around the room before he couldn't help but yawn deeply and speak the truth. He'd had a few nightmares since they had escaped Malfoy Manor and he guessed that more would come when they had to relive it to tell everyone about it, a fact that he dreaded.

END OF CHAPTER 3

Author's Note: Thanks again to everyone for reading and reviewing this and the other chapters. As always reviews, comments, and questions are always appreciated. I still can't and don't read Hermione with Harry or Draco or anybody other than Ron and I don't read Ron stories with him paired with anybody else, the same with Harry and Ginny, I just view things as the characters are presented in the books that the two main canon couples are the only ones that make any sense. Also not a fan of the stories where the Ministry has a new marriage law, as usually it seems that those stories are just a way to make sure that the canon couples don't end up together, often pairing characters up that had little to no real interaction at all. Sorry that this chapter didn't have more but I got started and found myself so far along that I couldn't fit much more in, the next chapter will hopefully have Malfoy Manor, Shell Cottage, and Gringotts.

I'm moving Ron and Hermione along as a pair bit by bit in this story as I think that once they got the fact that they were in love out of the way and both understood that a lot of their arguments and problems would go away for the most part. Ron and Hermione often seem to mostly argue when Harry is around, and makes me wonder what they got up to for that whole month or so before Harry showed up at Grimmauld Place, no I don't think it was anything romantic but I just think that there'd be some of their family and friends that wouldn't be that surprised when they did get together.

Also always have a laugh when I notice that there's like three times or so that Harry views Ginny acting like or making a sound like a cat. I still think that Ron and Hermione could have gotten together in their fifth year sometime, and it wouldn't have been that hard for Rowling to write them together given that we'd only see the parts of their romance that Harry saw, and I'd guess that most of their romance would be when he wasn't around, we'd just need little bits here and there.

Harry could have even teased them about it, about what they were really getting up to on prefect patrols and such. I also still wish that Ron and Hermione would have had more children, not as many as his parents but five total kids would have been about right to me. I also find Harry's indifference in the sixth book odd when Hermione asks him what she's supposed to have done and he knows the answer and doesn't seem to have any interest in telling her even though he can see that she's hurting and the answer could help her.

I also kind of wish that when Ron and Hermione followed Harry down to the common room on the night when he took his luck potion in the sixth book that maybe their clothes would have been messed up a little just so that Lavender and others would have thought that they got up to a lot in the dorm room before coming down. The whole Ron and Lavender pairing was a stall tactic to me, as Rowling never really developed many of the other students in the books as real characters. That and how the trio never really branched out to make friends outside of the trio so I would be surprised if the rumor mill at Hogwarts wasn't buzzing that Hermione was dating or at least liked one or both Harry and Ron at one time or another over the years. Also always found that in the book Hermione recovers pretty quickly from what Bellatrix did to her but in many of the fan stories she's much worse off and it takes a long time for her to recover, I just find the difference odd and never liked the movie version with the mudblood scar on her arm, thankfully it wasn't in the book. Thank You.


	4. Chapter 4

**AFTER ACTION REPORT 4**

 **Author's Note: I don't own any of the characters, as if I did then Ron/Hermione would have started far earlier.**

Hogwarts

True to his worries Harry did indeed have a few nightmares that night, though thankfully to him they had not been that bad. He'd had far worse before anyway. He had been sorely tempted to invite Ginny to stay in the dorm but at the time Mrs. Weasley had been hovering around and he hadn't thought that his idea would go over very well with her. Harry knew that even after he was done telling their whole story to everyone that there would be days and days of smaller conversations about the exact details of certain periods, conversations that he was dreading. Harry could only guess the questions that the others had for Ron and Hermione and he knew that their number would only increase with what was to come. He had barely seen Ron and Hermione since breaking up the circle for the night and had a sneaking suspicion that the two were together, wherever they were. Harry hurriedly at breakfast and just hoped that he would be able to keep it all down at certain points before he stepped back into the Main Hall and sat down beside Ron and Hermione again, with Ginny yawning sleepily beside him.

"After our narrow escape from Xenophilius Lovegood's house we went everywhere…looking at every possible location that Voldemort could have hidden a horcrux," Harry started off with a grim smile before he threw his hands up in a sign of defeat that their search after that had been one miss after another and how they had found nothing of any help during that time.

"And big surprise we found nothing," Ron admitted with a sarcastic smirk before his expression softened at a stern look from Hermione as she tried to smooth out his rough edges a bit even though she agreed with his assessment of their attempts.

"Can't win them all eh," Neville couldn't help but giggle through his words as he caught sight of the look on Ron's face and he just couldn't help himself in attempting a bit of humor.

"Yeah well…winning a few sure would have been nice," Ron grumpily answered as his shoulders slumped a bit and he then couldn't help but smile when Hermione laid a hand on the small of his back and leaned into him before she spoke.

"True…but we didn't have that good of luck back then, while we were searching Ron kept messing with the wireless with his wand, trying to guess the password for Potterwatch," Hermione acknowledged softly and as she went Harry and Ron could see that she was struggling a bit to keep her composure as they knew what was coming soon after.

"I didn't get it until just after my birthday," Ron added with a rather glum frown as he remembered his woebegone attempts at deciphering the correct password and how long it had taken him to finally get it right all those months ago.

"It was great hearing Lupin and the others, that they were behind us…then I…I made a mistake," Harry rushed onwards before Ron could say anything else as a brief and heartbroken smile crossed his lips before what had come next stormed back into his mind and he could only look like he had an upset stomach as he admitted the truth to everyone.

"What was it Harry," Bill asked softly with an idea what it had been though a glance towards his parents told him that if he hadn't said it one of them would have.

"I said Voldemort's name and we got caught by a gang of Snatchers, they took us to Malfoy Manor," Harry explained slowly and deliberately as again as he spoke he cast nervous glances over at Hermione, who seemed to be growing more and more anxious with each word.

"And then…," Hermione forced herself to get out as she tried to put forth what she wanted to say about the subject but her voice failed her and she then went silent with tears already forming in her eyes.

"Bloody bastards separated us, threw us into the dungeon and….and…damn…," Ron tried his very best, Harry could tell, to get the information out before his eyes began to water and seemingly to combat that he balled both of his hands up into fists until the knuckles turned white and he powerfully kicked the leg of the chair that he was sitting in with his foot, which caused a few exclamations of alarm around the room, as his jaw was clenched tightly. Harry took a quick glance around the room before he continued, seeing everyone on the edge of their seats, he steadied himself for the truth.

"They kept Hermione back…to…interrogate," Harry breathed out with a voice that threatened to fail him with every word as he tried his best to not revisit the scene in his mind with every word. He could see the looks of shock and horror on the faces of those around him, with Hagrid appearing to be on the verge of breaking down as his mind seemed to come to the right horrific conclusion just as another spoke up.

"You mean torture," Kingsley interjected with a very grave and eerily serious tone of voice as his gaze seemingly went right through Harry to a spot on the wall behind him, leaving Harry to feel a bit queasy at it all.

"That bitch….Bellatrix…she…she…told her to take me instead but…she slapped me but that was nothing…," Ron barely managed to get out of his mouth as his ears almost literally lit themselves on fire at how angry Harry could tell that he was getting at the memory of what had happened to Hermione as his fingernails were digging into his palms so much that if he pushed much harder there would probably be blood. Harry could see several of those seated around him very nearly erupting out of their seats in anger and so he quickly rushed to speak to try and keep things moving.

"The Cruciatus curse…and it wasn't just once…to many to count," Harry nodded back slowly as he couldn't look over at Hermione the whole time that he was speaking but he could hear a sniffle or two coming from her direction and guessed that she was now crying silently.

Harry had fully expected an uproar to that bit of the truth and he didn't have to wait long for it to happen. All around the room there were vehement exclamations of fury and outrage at how Hermione had been treated. For the first time Harry was glad that Sirius was dead, for if he had heard how his "dear" cousin had hurt Hermione he probably would have made it a personal mission to hunt down every single remaining Death Eater and deal with them all by himself at the very least. Across the room Hagrid had crush the bucket of tea that he had been drinking from and if possible George looked more sorrowful than ever. Mr. Weasley looked like he was about to rip the buttons off of his shirt in fury while Mrs. Weasley was already turning red, never a good sign for a member of the Weasley family, as Harry well knew. McGonagall looked like she was caught halfway between absolute fury and total heartbreak over what had happened at Malfoy Manor, and she couldn't quite make up her mind as to which emotion to follow to its natural end.

"No…really, I'm fine…I don't get the nightmares much anymore and," Hermione started to say as she looked more like she was pleading for everyone to calm down as she stood up and took a couple of steps forward and tried to show everyone how well she was now.

Harry could tell that her display of fitness had not won anyone over when Mrs. Weasley stood up and interrupted Hermione with a tearful hug. Seconds later Ginny flew past Harry's shoulder to join her mother in hugging Hermione as the trio were in a world unto themselves even though they weren't the only ones in the room that were crying or had tears in their eyes. It didn't take long for the trio to be enlarged by two as Fleur and Neville soon joined them in hugging Hermione and then Mrs. Weasley and Ginny in turn. Across the room Dean gave Harry an odd look of confusion at all of the hugging as he had been there at Shell Cottage back then and had long since decided that Hermione was fit as a fiddle after her ordeal. Harry could only meekly smile and shrug his shoulders back before Ron turned to him and gave him his own look of uncertainty as to how to continue on telling their story without being told off by all of his female relatives or Hermione.

"But what were the two of you doing…," Bill finally asked after nervously clearing his throat, an act that seemed to snap most of those out of the habit of watching Hermione in the middle of a big group hug that didn't seem to having any sign of ending until Harry rushed to move things along.

"Ron was going ballistic…trying to get out and back to her…, every time Hermione would scream Ron would shout her name…it was terrible….terrible…," Harry forced himself to say as it was yet another dark memory that he would really rather be able to totally forget about but he guessed that somehow it would be something that he would remember for the rest of his life.

"No…to far…Dumbledore went too far…demanded too much…out of those to young…," McGonagall suddenly exclaimed, after having stayed silent for the past several minutes even though Harry could have sworn that he had seen her wipe away a tear at the revelation of what Hermione had endured, as she balled her hands up into fists and in a flash was standing, angrily scowling at no one in particular as she could not believe that Dumbledore would have set Harry and the Ron and Hermione on a trail that would have lead them to Malfoy Manor and to be treated so cruelly.

"He couldn't have known…I…," Harry rushed to answer even though he had no real idea as to what he was going to say as he could tell that some of the others in the room were having the same problem with Hagrid looking angry at what had happened to the trio though his love and respect for Dumbledore kept him totally lost in thought while Percy looked more than a bit green and Fleur pretended to have a bit of dust in her eye as she reluctantly allowed Bill to lead her back to her seat as the group hug began to break up.

"Ron was trying to figure a way out near as I could tell…when he wasn't screaming for Hermione, it was pretty dark down there," Dean interrupted with a slight shudder as he remembered the time in Malfoy Manor and then half rose to help a sniffling Neville back to his seat.

"How did you get out," Neville gasped as he bit his bottom lip in fear and tightly gripped the edge of his seat and hung on every word that Harry and Dean were saying.

"Well…I used a special mirror that Sirius had given me…I had it in the moleskin pouch that Hagrid gave me for my birthday, you can communicate between the two mirrors no matter what, I begged whoever was on the other end for help and Dobby appeared in front of us, he took Dean and Luna and Ollivander and Griphook away, which left just me and Ron left," Harry explained with at first an almost excited tone of voice before even the mention of the house elf's name nearly caused him to tear up before he pushed himself forward and continued on.

"They must have heard something from up above somehow…they sent Pettigrew down to check on us, he tried to strangle Harry but then…," Ron started to answer the open and unspoken question with a hesitant glance towards Harry and then Hermione before he forced himself to look anywhere but at his parents as he had to swallow hard before he was interrupted.

"He didn't…," Hagrid exclaimed with wide eyes and his mouth forming a giant letter o before he started to shake his head in what Harry could only guess was an attempt to wrench the dark thoughts from his mind if at all possible.

"He did, but then I reminded him that I'd saved his miserable life once…he hesitated…and that was all it took," Harry replied with a forced and sarcastic smile before he grew more serious and felt himself getting worked up and almost feeling sorry for the man that had betrayed his parents.

"For what," Mrs. Weasley wondered softly with a fearful look in her eyes as she sat back down but kept her gaze locked onto Harry before he could take a deep breath and answer.

"Voldemort must have jinxed the silver hand somehow, as soon as Pettigrew showed the slightest bit of mercy…of hesitation…it turned on him," Harry replied looking lost in dark thoughts as his shoulders slumped a bit and he stared at the ground for most of his words before he forced himself to look up and hoped that everyone would see that he hadn't been happy about the events that he was describing.

"We tried to stop it…really…we tried everything…would have thrown the bloody kitchen sink at it if I could have, but…," Ron pleaded as heartily as he could as Harry could tell that the memory of what happened to Pettigrew still bothered Ron every bit as much as it bothered him regardless of his betrayal.

"No," McGonagall gasped out loudly with a hand over her mouth before she lowered the front brim of her hat far enough to cover her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose to keep her glasses there and try to collect herself.

"The hand…it killed him, right in front of us, there was nothing that we could do…had that been it I would have been able to see the thestrals here at Hogwarts," Ron chimed in with as he couldn't have looked less than thrilled to be having to remember that moment in time though he knew that he had to and so tried to get through it as quickly as he could, smiling a bit at the end at Hermione's hand on the back of his neck giving it an affectionate squeeze.

"Needless to say we didn't stick around long after that, Ron managed to throw off suspicion by impersonating Peter's voice…we raced up the stairs and got to where Hermione was just as Bellatrix was about to hand her over to Greyback…," Harry said with what he hoped was a serious but not overly sad or angry look in his eyes as he slowly looked at each and every one of those sitting around him to hear their story, hoping that he could get his point across with as few words as possible.

Harry let his words sink in and wasn't surprised to see Bill with a look that could peel paint while Mr. Weasley looked very uncomfortable. Mrs. Weasley looked like she might become sick and it was an expression that was mirrored on George and especially Percy's faces. Dean looked to be struggling to keep it together while Neville was doing all that he could to keep from bursting into tears and McGonagall sat looking like she's thinking that she had seen too much death and bloodshed that such news should not get to her but it did. Hagrid appeared caught somewhere between joining Neville in a fit of tears and snapping a steel beam across his knee with his bare hands.

"But then Ron, he…he…," Hermione exclaimed out as loudly as she could, though it only ended up being barely audible above a whisper, as her left hand started to shake out of she wasn't sure whether it was fear or panic or anger before Ron took her hand in his and gave it a squeeze of support and she turned to him with an appreciative smile and tears in her eyes.

"Lost my head and charged into the room…I'd rather have died then let anything happen to Hermione because I was too weak to…," Ron started to say as soon as he had squeezed Hermione's hand and given her a look as he balled up his other hand into a fist and scowled heavily at Bill, as the eldest Weasley son had looked like was on the verge of asking a question but that idea was quenched by Ron's intense look.

"Ron stop, you weren't too weak, you saved me…," Hermione whispered softly to him as she leaned in as close as she dared with a very honest and earnest smile on her face before she slid herself up onto his lap so that she could get him to lean down far enough to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. She started to slide back off his lap but he caught her and when she started to turn her head back to ask him what he was doing he quickly leaned his head down and their lips met in a short but sweet kiss. She again started to slide off his lap but stopped when he reached an arm around behind her back and held her close, and to Harry's great joy she seemed to be entirely happy to stay, though perhaps more than a bit nervous at what some of the others would think.

"Though Bellatrix made us drop our wands or else she was going to cut Hermione's throat with a knife…if Dobby…if Dobby hadn't shown up and saved us…I don't know what would have happened," Harry quickly added through a deep but almost giddy blush on his cheeks as he gave Ron and Hermione one last glance and then cast his gaze back out over Hagrid and the others.

"That…that…that…," Mrs. Weasley sputtered back as she struggled to process what Harry had told her while staring past him and directly at Ron and Hermione, though she didn't seem upset by their combined show of affection she did seem hope that she wasn't just seeing things.

"It's just a scar…you can barely see it, I'm….I'm…," Hermione fumbled through with her cheeks as red as Ron's hair as she turned away from his glowing ears and tried to look back at Mrs. Weasley without tears in her eyes but her attempts at it and her voice failed her as one of her hands then reached up to her neck to cover the scar while she tried to wipe away her tears with the other.

"Still beautiful to me," Ron huffed softly under his breath with the tips of his ears glowing a bright red as Hermione tried her best to not allow her face to rival his ears though her heart pleasantly skipped a beat at his words and she fought back the urge to cry, though she felt her eyes getting wet.

Harry gave them a few moments as he was sure that after everything that the three had been through together his two best friends deserved a bit of happiness. Mrs. Weasley was locked into a deep conversation with her husband about what Harry could only guess though he couldn't help but grin as he kept seeing her cast a curious eye at Ron and Hermione and he hoped that she would be happy for them. Harry still remembered how Mrs. Weasley had treated Hermione a bit unfairly back during the TriWizard Tournament when she had believed that Hermione had been leading both he and Viktor Krum on romantically. Harry had quickly set her straight back then and everything had been smoothed out thankfully without any further problems, and he had been very glad for it.

"We were sunk until Dobby showed up and dropped a chandelier down on our heads, I had hit Greyback with a stunning spell from three wands earlier so he was thankfully out of action, but the after giving Hermione that scar Bellatrix threw her under the chandelier to save herself…in the confusion afterwards Ron freed Hermione and then disapparated with one of the wands that I tossed to him, Dobby and I followed seconds later but…that…Bellatrix had thrown her knife and….," Harry continued on with a small smirk as he at first kept his gaze locked onto Ron and Hermione, who seemed to for the moment be off in their own little world, before he turned his head and took only a brief look in McGonagall's general and then moved on to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's, finally allowing his eyes to land on Hagrid, who was now shedding silent tears over what he expected Harry's next words to be about Dobby.

"Dobby didn't make it," Ron finally said as Harry's heart nearly broke at the sound of Ron's voice cracking under the strain of that particular tragedy and showed how much he had come to like the house elf despite his treatment of Kreacher for the most part. At his side Hermione could only glumly nod her head in silent solidarity about the event even though she had been unconscious at the time.

"Harry, Ron, and I dug the grave and buried him while Fleur took care of Hermione and the others," Dean admitted softly with a slightly sick feeling in his stomach for the loss of the house elf that had saved his life and how his death had affected Harry as he absentmindedly began to try to dig out some dirt from underneath his fingernails rather than look up at anyone.

"I could tell that something bad had happened to Hermione…I thought that she had been tortured but…Ron wouldn't say anything when he showed up with her in his arms, he was so worried about her…scared to death that she wouldn't be okay, I've never seen him so scared," Bill chimed in with his version of the events as he nervously clasped his hands together in front of him and only briefly glanced over at his parents lest he catch his mother's eye, see tears in them, and then possibly tear up himself. Beside him Fleur sniffled back tears of her own before she laid her head on his shoulder and wrapped her arms around him as best she could.

"Bill…they were…you didn't…why…," Mrs. Weasley demanded as she suddenly had great difficulty getting her words out in a complete sentence without looking like she was about to either be bowled over from the shock of Bill's revelation or feel like she wanted to knock some sense into him for having not told her.

"You know why Mum, if I had told you that those three were at Shell Cottage then there would have been nothing and no one that would have kept you away from them, and then they never would have been able to go on and do what they needed to, it had to happen…," Bill pleaded with a very anxious and uncertain smile as he gestured in defense with his hands, almost as if he half expected his mother to blow up at him, while he leaned back in his seat and hoped that she would understand his reasons and not be too angry at him over it.

"Yes…well…still…you should have said something," Mrs. Weasley slowly as she was thinking much faster than she could speak and doing her very best to keep her infamous temper in check before she collected herself and then turned her gaze to Ron and Hermione and her expression visibly softened to everyone around and she could only then smile happily at the sight of the pair.

"Next time Mum…next time," Bill mumbled under his breath with a shaky and very nervous smile before he caught Dean eyeing him intently before he gave the younger Gryffindor a nod of his head to say that it was okay to move on.

"We all spent like the next month or so recuperating with Bill and Fleur, not sure what they were doing otherwise as they kept to themselves for the most part, Professor Lupin came one night to tell us that Tonks had the baby and that Harry was his godfather," Dean quickly explained after taking a deep breath and sitting up straight, giving both Bill and Fleur thankful smiles, as he then found himself unable to keep from smiling as he talked about Lupin's visit. He would have said more but then the fact that both Lupin and Tonks had died in the battle struck him suddenly and he went instantly silent and hung his head, trying to will himself to keep from getting emotional.

"We were planning out a way to get into Gringott's, Bellatrix Lestrange's vault actually," Harry cautiously stated as he added onto what Dean had said and visibly cringed at the tumult of concern and shock that he expected to come from where they had been planning to break into and whose vault it was. Ginny seemed to sense this and calmed him down immensely when she took his right hand in hers and gave it a supportive squeeze.

"But…but…that is impossible, any vault let alone Bellatrix Lestrange's vault," McGonagall blurted out with a look of total disbelief as she couldn't fathom any way into or out of any of the vaults in Gringott's let alone one as heavily defended as Bellatrix's.

"It's why it took so long to plan, plus we needed to give Hermione enough time to recover after…," Ron countered with his voice full of confidence at first before it grew shaky again at even the hint of what had happened to Hermione as he then looked to her, his expression full of love and concern.

"I was completely fine a few days later Ron…good to go," Hermione pointed out with a distinguished expression as she turned her face away from Ron, though Harry noticed not because she was angry at him but rather because her cheeks were almost glowing as red as Ron's ears often did.

"Right…and that's why you kept milking it for two weeks…every time that Ron wasn't around she would be fine, then he'd show up and she'd…," Bill grinned widely back at her, causing her to blush even redder, as he sat up in his seat and let his gaze bore a hole right through her as he struggled to keep from laughing openly at her expression before she cut in.

"Er…yes, well…moving on we had finally devised a plan and then were able to put it into motion, of course that meant that I…," Hermione stuttered out with a quivering jaw as even her ears were starting to turn red as she looked like she wanted nothing more than to hurry the discussion along and make everyone forget about what she may or may not have done.

"Had to take Polyjuice Potion and turn into…Bellatrix Lestrange…," Ron stated very plainly as if he were reciting information from a textbook about dirt as he struggled mightily to keep himself from showing just how angry he was at Bellatrix.

"We had her wand so besides the obvious…difficulties…Hermione just had to modify Ron's looks so that no one would notice that it was us, then we went to Gringott's and got all of the way to the vault before everything went sideways…well more sideways than when the Thief's Downfall undid all of our charms and everything," Harry said softly as he did his best to explain their line of thought at the time at first before he acknowledged what had almost been their undoing and had sent them improvising for the rest of the time.

"Sideways…how so," Kingsley intoned with a very grim and serious scowl as he slid his hands into his pockets in an attempt to hide the fact that he was nervously rubbing his fingertips together in anticipation and felt that as one of the few remaining trustworthy aurors left he needed to set a good example and always remain as calm as possible.

"Well, there was a fake sword of Gryffindor in the vault and they had placed Gemino and Flagrante Curses on everything in the vault so that every time we touched anything it duplicated itself several times over and burned at the touch, we were…all of us…very nearly drowned under all of the copies…we were covered in burns by the time that we got out, but Harry managed to retrieve the horcrux…getting out of Gringotts was a different story," Hermione explained softly with an arm around the back of Ron's neck as she shifted in her seat on his lap so that she could look back out at everyone while she absentmindedly began to pick a few stray hairs off of the knee of her jeans.

"We took the dragon of course…Harry's idea," Ron proudly remarked with a slightly cocky grin as he puffed his chest out a bit until Hermione gave him a lighthearted elbow to the side and he deflated noticeably but kept a slightly pained smirk as beside them Harry tried his best to keep from laughing.

"The…dragon," Mr. Weasley gasped out softly with wide eyes as he looked shocked and aghast that there was a dragon hidden beneath Gringotts, and beside him Mrs. Weasley was looking very uncomfortable at the thought of it as well.

"It was horrible, they had it chained up so much that it could barely move more than a small amount…it was nearly blind as well," Hermione replied in dismay as she shook her head in sadness and looked more than a bit worried at the fate of the dragon and tried to remember to give whoever had chained it up in the first place a piece of her mind.

"How horrible," Hagrid grouched angrily as he looked fit to be tied at how the dragon had been treated for so many years, with his large hands balling up into enormous fists and beginning to shake with rage, and only a rather stern look from Professor McGonagall seemed to be able to calm him down for the moment.

"Yeah…but it was a fair bit better than dealing with the wizard guards and goblins that were shooting spells at us after we got the cup and tried to leave," Ron readily agreed with a slow nodding of his head before he cocked it to one side and grinned sarcastically while he explained the rest of it as he cringed slightly and then turned to Hermione before she spoke up.

"Still…Harry somehow had the ever so bright idea to leap onto the back of the dragon and ride it to freedom, we made it out…barely," Hermione stated in a drawn out tone of voice as she copied Ron and leaned her head to one side before she tried to smile through explaining how the trio had made it out of Gringott's alive, keeping the exact details to a minimum.

"Just lucky that dragon didn't think to eat us, though speaking of lunch…anyone else hungry," Ron remarked with a hearty laugh before he seemed to become very preoccupied just as his stomach gave a very loud growl and he looked around like he wasn't the one that had made the noise.

"When are you not hungry," Hermione laughed through happily as she fought back the urge to kiss him senseless as to her right then he looked very cute and she couldn't help but love him. Before Ron could say anything more Hermione slid off of his lap and stood up. Taking one of his hands in hers she gave a small smile to the assembly before dragging Ron off out of the room.

"When he's asleep…but really, we should eat," Harry added with a sly grin, as he watched the pair leave the room, before he went silent when his own stomach gave a roar of hunger.

END OF CHAPTER 4

Author's Note: Thanks again to everyone for reading and reviewing this and the other chapters. As always reviews, comments, and questions are greatly appreciated. Moved Ron and Hermione forward in this chapter and tried to have some fun with the other characters. Always wondered what Ginny meant in the sixth movie when as she and Harry were leaving Ron and Hermione in the hospital wing after he was poisoned she said that it was about time to Harry and he nodded. I couldn't decide if she had meant that it was about time that the two were talking or interacting again or if she thought that Ron being poisoned and what Hermione had said to Lavender would mean that the two would become a couple soon after. Also always wished that Ron would have said or done something in the sixth movie after Hermione's line about what Ron thought that Ginny would think if she had looked over and saw Ron and Hermione snogging and then gave Ron a pleading look. Again still can't read Harry and Hermione or Draco and Hermione.

I view the series as Ron and Hermione to some degree putting their lives on hold to help Harry and then doing it again after Voldemort's defeat. Still think that Ron and Hermione should have gotten together as early as the fifth book and still mad at Harry and Ginny in the sixth book after Ginny told Ron that Hermione had kissed Krum. Hermione then asked Harry point blank what she was supposed to have done and Harry didn't answer her even though he knew that she was hurting and he knew the answer. I'm still not sure as to exactly when Harry figured out that Ron and Hermione liked each other, as even in the sixth book he didn't seem to know as he felt that they seemed to be drifting apart and that it was just what happened to some people as they got older. Then after Ron came back in the sixth book Harry told Ron that he'd always seen Hermione as a sister and thought that she felt the same about him, so then did he just then learn that Ron liked Hermione.

And I find it a bit odd that Harry and Ron would never talk about girls that they thought were good looking or anything of the sort, or that one of the other guys like Dean or Seamus would ask them if they were dating Hermione or what they thought of her. Harry often seems to not care about anybody else until it directly affects him. Then I had a thought that by the end of the books Ron and Hermione were eighteen and Harry was seventeen with Ginny's seventeenth birthday probably not that far off. Which then meant that Ron's eighteenth birthday passed without being mentioned, shortly before the trio was captured and taken to Malfoy Manor. It's often easy to forget that the trio spent a full month or so with Bill and Fleur at Shell Cottage. I still think that Ron and Hermione should have had about five total kids, and it would not have been hard to fit them all into the epilogue at all.

And I think that Ron should have gone with Hermione to Australia and maybe back to Hogwarts as well as being an auror seems a lot like what the trio were doing on their horcrux hunt and not sure that Ron would be so eager to do that again. McGonagall says in one of the books that it takes like four years to fully be an auror, so if Ron left after only two years with Harry to run the shop with George then he wasn't even fully through the program when he left. And odd to think that when Harry's parents died Mr. and Mrs. Weasley already had six children and she was pregnant with their seventh, and that Bill would have started Hogwarts a year or two after Harry was born. The next chapter will finish up the story with what happened to Hermione's parents and the like and then probably an epilogue with a few changes from the one in the book. Thank You.


	5. Chapter 5

**AFTER ACTION REPORT 5**

 **Author's Note: I don't own any of the characters, as if I did then Ron/Hermione would have started far earlier.**

Hogwarts

Lunch had given Harry a few chances to think about the rest of his story. To him there wasn't much left to tell but he knew that the others would have their questions. As he ate Harry could feel several pairs of eyes staring at him. He again knew not where Ron and Hermione had snuck off to though he still guessed that wherever they were the two were together and would show up in time to get some food in them before joining him for the rest of their story. Harry didn't feel that there was terribly much left for him to tell, as in his mind much of what was left had occurred in front of most if not all of those that were present to hear what had happened to them. There were only a few little bits and pieces left to tell in Harry's mind, though he guessed that if he opened up the floor for questions it would take days. Ginny, seated beside him, had bit her tongue and held her questions back the entire time and for the first time in a very long time he couldn't wait for her to unleash them all, if only so that he could spend as much time with her as possible. Being apart from her for so long had taught him just how much he had come to care for if not love her. Hagrid had spent the break catching a bite to eat and feeding Fang, his enormous boarhound. Harry wasn't sure that he could eat another bite of food when Ron and Hermione had slipped back into the room behind him and sat down opposite he and Ginny, both looking like the cat that had just eaten the canary. By the time that the four returned to their seats they were the last ones to arrive and Harry was set to begin.

"Hagrid will be happy to know that the dragon got us well clear of Gringott's and London, much later when it flew low enough to drink some water we jumped off…and it flew off and left us alone…thankfully," Harry announced to the group with a quick sweep of his gaze before he turned his full attention to one of his oldest friends, hoping that he would be able to relax about the current condition of the dragon in question.

"As far as we know it's still out there somewhere…again…not eating us," Ron grinned along with a very relieved smile as he reached over and laid a hand on Hermione's shoulder before she managed a small smile.

"We did our best to recover from the ordeal before Harry got the idea to go to Hogsmeade, so we all got under his invisibility cloak and disapparated," Hermione explained with a bit of a nervous edge to her words before she gave a shudder at the memory of Voldemort's actions at Gringott's and how it had affected Harry and how worried she and Ron had been.

"Big mistake…they knew the moment that our feet hit the ground, barely had time to breathe before that bloody alarm went off," Ron laughed darkly as he tried to keep a sneer from his face as he pulled his hands back and clasped his hands together in front of him, finally clamping his jaw together tightly at the end.

"A wise precaution I must admit…even though it was their side that thought of it," Kingsley calmly stated, sounding as if he were reporting on the weather or what he had for breakfast that morning, before he caught the odd look that Hagrid was giving him and adjusted his tone a bit to try to head off any awkward situation.

"Thankfully Aberforth rescued us, gave us something to eat and drink and then told us about his family history, about what happened to his sister Ariana, it was so sad…," Hermione rushed to continue rather than admire the forward-thinking of Voldemort and the Death Eaters as she tried not to blush or become too emotional at the story of the youngest of the Dumbledore's.

"It's so sad, he and Albus were so close for so long…to have never gotten themselves sorted out…tragic," McGonagall bemoaned the circumstances with an almost wistful look in her eyes before she dropped her chin down to her chest to collect herself as Harry thought that her eyes appeared to be wet.

"Y…yeah," Percy almost whispered along in agreement as he went very green with a look at the different members of his family seated around the room before a great and fearful shiver wracked his body and he swallowed hard.

"Aberforth hooked us up with Neville who got us back into Hogwarts and told us what the Carrows were doing, how they were really treating the students, we had to do something," Ron explained with a couple of quick nervous glances over at Harry and Hermione so that he could see from their expressions if he was forgetting anything.

"So Ron came up with the idea that the rest of the DA could help us find the last horcrux even if they didn't know what it was," Harry said with a quick nod to Ron before he turned back to the assembled group and tried to sound as confident as he could even though he was still a bit uneasy that they had included so many in their search.

"After Harry left with Luna to go to the Ravenclaw common room because Ginny kept Cho from accompanying him Ron and I were left with a problem, even if we found the horcrux we didn't have a way to destroy it, then Ron had a brilliant idea," Hermione began to add before Harry could get another word in edgewise as she kept calm and only caught sight of at first a lightly glaring Ginny out of the corner of her eye before the youngest Weasley then tried to look as innocent as possible and as if she had no idea what Hermione was talking about as between them Harry appeared to be visibly uncomfortable.

"Well…what was it, don't leave us in suspense," Charlie remarked with an amused grin as he could see by the fact that Ron was the only one seated on the other side of the room that wasn't blushing or trying to act like something important hadn't just been said before Hermione cut in.

"We…Ron and I…used a broom to get into the Chamber of Secrets and pulled the teeth from the jaws of the dead basilisk, I destroyed the cup since Ron and Harry had already had the honor, it…fought back but…Ron was…," Hermione started to answer before she momentarily stopped as she went a bit pink in the cheeks and then hurried to go on and hope that no one else in the room saw as she spoke of her destruction of one of the last of the horcruxes.

"After what the locket did I wasn't about to let Hermione face it alone, there was no telling…," Ron stated sharply with a fierce look of determination in his gaze as he balled his hands up into fists and gritted his teeth before Hermione managed to get him to calm down by sliding a hand under his shirt and rubbing small circles on his back with the palm of her hand before she spoke up.

"We got through it…together, that's what's important, but the next part I think that Harry should be the one to explain," Hermione quickly added with a proud and relieved smile, that she showed only to Ron, as her gaze never left his as she spoke and Harry hoped that no one would interrupt their little moment.

"Thanks…I'm sorry everyone, I had to let Voldemort kill me to get rid of the last horcrux, the one that he never meant to make, I never meant to hurt anyone…really," Harry grumbled a bit after several silent moments as he had cast a quick look around the room to judge everyone's reactions to Ron and Hermione's words before he'd launched into his own, not totally sure if Hermione was being kind to him or just making him tell the part of the story that she didn't want to tell. At the end he could only manage a weak smile of apology as he turned to Ginny and tried to admit how truly sorry to her he was, as he could still hear her scream at the sight of what she thought was his dead body ringing in his ears whenever the subject came up.

"And yet you did, jerk," Ginny spat out angrily as she crossed her arms across her chest and snapped her head away from looking anywhere near Harry for a few moments before she turned back just enough to watch him out of the corner of her eye. Harry could see her fighting back the urge to cry at the memory and knew that he had to pick his next words carefully.

"I'm sorry Ginny, to you most of all…I never meant to…I never wanted to hurt you like that, if you let me I'll spend the rest of my life making it up to you," Harry said flatly with as much regret and honesty as he could muster up as he took a lot of relief in the fact that when he laid a hand on Ginny's knee she didn't brush it off but rather laid a hand over his and gave it a squeeze.

"I'm going to hold you to that," Ginny declared with such an intense look in her eyes that sent a very strong shiver of fear down Harry's spine as he knew full well that she meant every word and with the hexes that she could cast he knew that his fears were more than justified.

"And if she doesn't then we will," Hermione added under her breath with an all too sweet smile as she reached a hand over and took hold of Harry's arm, going so far at the end as to lightly dig her fingernails into his arm, just enough to cause a little bit of pain though not enough to draw blood, the smile never leaving her lips. Harry knew that she was not a witch to be trifled with.

"Be that as it may Mr. Potter the question now becomes…what next," Kingsley sagely wondered aloud with a curious raising of only one of his eyebrows and an odd expression as he crossed his arms across his chest and looked back and forth between Harry and Ron and Hermione, hoping that one of them would answer him sooner rather than later.

"Well…next we…," Harry tried to answer before he really had an idea as he could feel every eye in the room on him and he had to admit that he was getting a bit nervous when Hermione stepped up.

"We rest, rebuild…and try to move on…as best we can," Hermione replied as she appeared to just then be fully comprehending the breadth and width of the task before she tried to finish her answer with a bit of a smile, hoping for something positive.

"Correct, which is just one of the reasons that we will need your help, all three of you and…," McGonagall started to offer up with an optimistic but reserved tone as she looked the three over carefully to scrutinize their reactions to her offer before she was cut just short.

"I'll be glad to help after I…," Hermione started to quickly answer with a happy but nervous expression as she began to fidget noticeably in her seat and only stopped when Ron looped an arm around her and gave her a one armed hug.

"After we get back from Australia with her parents," Ron interjected with more than a fair amount of confidence as he momentarily ignored the look of surprised on Hermione's face before he leaned over and whispered something into her ear, causing her to blush deeply and have to bite her lip to keep from tearing up.

"Where with who…," Percy blurted out while looking thoroughly confused before he turned first to McGonagall and then to his parents, hoping that any of them would be able to explain Ron and Hermione's responses to him in plain simple English.

"Before coming to the Burrow for the wedding Hermione…well she…," Harry tried to answer for her though as he spoke he suddenly found that his voice began to falter and then totally fail under the intense looks from everyone in the room, not least of all McGonagall and Kingsley.

"I wiped my parents memories, I made them completely new identities as Wendell and Monika Wilkins and made them forget that…they…forget all about me…," Hermione replied as she tried to speak slowly and calmly while explaining what she had done to her parents, with a hint in her voice of what Harry knew was her pleading with them to understand at least a little bit of her reasons for having done what she did and that it was something that weighed very heavily on her.

Harry could see almost every reaction possible in the faces of those seated in the room. He could see Hermione drop her head and tear up while Ron looked very serious but also worried about Hermione. McGonagall bit her lip and Harry could see her flexing and releasing her fingers in an attempt to keep her composure while Percy and George appeared deathly serious with twin scowls. Hagrid did his best to hide his tears and Bill and Fleur both looked very uncomfortable. Beside him Ginny had turned rather glum and a bit green. Mrs. Weasley could only be described as being caught between two emotions, anger at Hermione having been forced to go to such extreme measures and sadness at how much it must have hurt her to do it.

"Then she had them move to Australia…to make sure that they were safe," Harry rushed to add before anyone could get a word in edgewise as he shifted his seating a bit to try to get a bit more comfortable before Ron cleared his throat and sat up straight.

"Once we've recovered a bit Hermione and I are going to find them, restore their memories and bring them home," Ron stated, with a quick glance and smile over at Hermione, as Harry could tell that he was trying to look at everyone sitting around them but his gaze somehow got to his parents faces and then never left.

"What," Ginny exclaimed before her mother could as she very nearly jumped up out of her seat and glared at Ron first and then at Hermione, appearing as if she felt that she'd been left out of some grand adventure all over again.

"I have to get them back Ginny…I have to…," Hermione replied with a very heartfelt and pleading look in her eyes and tone to her words as she first turned to Ginny and the two young women locked gazes for several moments before that gaze was turned towards Mrs. Weasley momentarily, almost imploring her to stay silent.

"I know but…," Ginny tried to object softly, looking a bit defeated but conciliatory as to she knew that the decision was out of her hands, before she nervously sat back down with her face as red as the setting sun.

"This isn't going to be like our trip Ginny, we're not going to be under a constant threat of attack…," Harry commented as he tried to calm her down a bit while making the trip sound far easier than the search for the horcruxes, hoping that she wouldn't be angry at him all over again.

"We…," Ron whispered a bit harsher than he had wanted to across Hermione to Harry as she looked back and forth between the two, feeling almost as if things were beginning to spiral out of control and she wasn't sure just how to regain her lead.

"Can't let you two go running off without me…besides…I'm the reason that you had to send your parents away Hermione, it's only right that I help fix it," Harry did his best to laugh back through his answer with a warm smile as he looked to them both in the hope that they would understand that wherever they were going he was going with them, feeling that it would be weird to split up, even if it was only for a few days or a week or two at most.

"So…Australia…guess I'd better pack," Ginny remarked softly with a faint hint of amusement in her voice as the corner of her lip began to curl up into a smirk as she turned to the trio and gave them then a warm smile and a nod of her head.

"Huh," Harry grunted a bit in shock and surprise as he whipped his head around to look at Ginny, who kept the smile on her face until she half turned her head towards her mother, who was looking very much less than thrilled at the idea.

"Oh no you're…," Mrs. Weasley started to object angrily as she bolted up to her feet and balled her hands up into fists as she then took a quick step forward just as Ginny rose to speak.

"Don't think that I'm letting you three run off without me again…besides someone needs to keep Ron from making a complete fool of himself," Ginny argued sharply with a less than pleased expression, not quite unlike her mother's as Harry got an eerie flash-forward to what his future may look like and he didn't hate it, before Ron cut in.

"Hey," Ron shot back with an annoyed frown as he was about to get started with a much more elaborate defense of why she could not come with them before Hermione grabbed his arm and dug her fingernails into his arm just enough for it to be painful but not enough to draw blood.

"The four of you are not going anywhere unless I say…," Mrs. Weasley snapped as she strode forward until she was about a few steps in front of her husband before he could figure out what to say.

"I'm sorry dear but…," Mr. Weasley nervously said with a clear stutter to his words as he got up and hurried forward until he managed to pull a slightly fuming Mrs. Weasley back towards her seat even though it was clear that in her mind the talk wasn't over just yet.

"Just wait till after Fred's…after his…please…," George finally said after several silent moments in the room while trying to hold back the tears before he managed to steel himself and sit up straight, though his eyes were visibly wet.

"Of course," Hermione instantly replied before she choked back a large swell of emotion at George's request and was helped greatly by Ron slipping an arm around her waist and pulling her close, leaving Harry to be glad that the telling of the majority of their story was over and done with.

111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111

Roughly Three Years Later-Hogwarts

Harry had not been back to Hogwarts in almost a year, and that had only been for the dedication of a few more statues to those that had lost their lives in the battle that had become the final defeat of Voldemort. He had seen many of them go up during his seventh year at Hogwarts, which to his great relief was one that he got to share with Ron and Hermione and Ginny along with several others. Professor then Headmistress McGonagall's request for them to attend their final year had worked. Fearful parents had relented and allowed their children to return to Hogwarts since the Golden Trio were going to be there. Ron and Hermione had been granted Head Boy and Head Girl, though Harry had not been upset by it in the least. Everyone had tried to figure out why and the debate wasn't finally settled until Bill had guessed that it had been done that way so that it would make moving forward easier on everyone.

He had guessed that if Harry and Ginny wanted any real amount of privacy together then it would behoove them to have Ron out of their hair. Ron and Hermione had grown much closer over the summer as the four had taken only a week to retrieve her parents and restore their memories. Though it had taken a fair bit longer than that to smooth things over about what she had done to them in her rush to protect their lives from Voldemort. The birth of the Granger's first grandchild almost nine months to the day from Ron and Hermione's wedding day, an event that the pair had intentionally kept as small as possible. The ceremony had taken place less than a year after the pair had graduated from Hogwarts and Harry had served as best man and Ginny as maid of honor. Harry and Ginny's wedding had taken place a few months later, only put off so that it wouldn't cause any problems with anniversary celebrations of the defeat of Voldemort.

"Any ideas where Ron and Hermione are, I hope they're not late," Harry commented with a slightly uneasy frown as he stepped out of the castle and looked all around, not seeing his two best friends or anyone else that had specifically invited for the event.

"Heh…yeah, Mum would blow her top if they were late, especially since they've been gone for so long," Ginny chuckled back with a warm smile as she shook her head to allow the warm breeze to blow the hair out of her face as she linked arms with Harry and leaned in to give him a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Yeah, Henry must be walking already…wonder if he'll even remember us," Harry agreed softly as he couldn't help but remember the steady stream of pictures that Hermione had sent him ever since her son's birth showing every stage of his development. He had long wondered if she had a kept a logbook detailing every step of Henry's growth, as he felt that it was something that she would do.

"They were only in Germany for one month and then France for the last six, Minister of Magic Kingsley's big plan to bolster cooperation between the various Ministries," Ginny explained as she tried lightly to push Harry off of the path and into the muddy area surrounding it, though only in jest, as Harry grinned back at her and pushed back with a twinkle in his eyes.

"I'm just glad that he didn't ask me…us to do it," Harry admitted as a slight blush started to creep up on his cheeks as usually he was all for undertaking special jobs from Kingsley though he had found that many of them entailed using his fame to help bolster people's confidence in the restructured Ministry.

"I just think that they wanted to put some distance between themselves and Mum, ever since they moved into that little cottage between the Burrow and the Lovegood's she's visited them like every day she could, it was driving Hermione around the bend," Ginny joked softly as she copied Harry and kept looking around hoping to spot Ron and Hermione while acknowledging without saying it that she was glad that she and Harry didn't live to close to her parents.

"Probably why she agreed to go on the trip," Harry laughed back as the pair shared a short fit of humor before they collected themselves and stopped briefly underneath one of the few small trees in the area.

"That works, but why do you think they're with Hagrid now," Ginny snickered under her breath as she turned them both until they were facing each out and she leaned up and gave Harry a quick kiss before he answered her.

"It's the only place left really," Harry shrugged with a relaxed smile before he broke free of Ginny's grasp just long enough to slip his arm around her shoulders and pull her close as the pair started to head off towards Hagrid's hut.

Harry kept the pace slow as they made their way towards the small hut, that had been slightly enlarged since the final battle with Voldemort, as he wasn't in that big of a rush to find his friends just yet. As soon as the hut came into view Harry knew that he had been right about where Ron and Hermione were. Both looked to have been treated well by their trip as the pair appeared to be healthy and happy, if not more than a little tan. Harry thought that he could see some signs of some of Ron's skin peeling under the collar of his shirt, guessing that his old friend had stayed out in the sun a little too long recently. Ron sat on the second step from the bottom with Hermione sitting in between his legs on the first step and while she was busy helping Hagrid, his hands on her bare shoulders.

"Harry…Ginny," Ron called out with a wide grin and a wave as he spotted Harry and Ginny crest the hill and come into view as Hermione could only smile and force herself to continue on her task.

"Fat lot of good you're doing, Mum's going spare looking for the three of you," Ginny shot back as she tried to both sound and appear angry at her older brother through her grin though she soon found it impossible and couldn't help but openly smile as she truly was glad to see them.

"Oh," Hagrid mumbled softly as he suddenly looked very guilty while Henry couldn't have cared less and was just finding it odd to be held by such a very strange man to him.

"I think that he meant us Hagrid, Mum knows that you wouldn't miss the party for anything…," Ron stated with a relaxed expression as he half turned to Hagrid before he leaned down and wrapped his long arms around Hermione's upper half, making it impossible for her to continue shucking peas until he let go, though she didn't look upset during that time.

"Sorry Ginny, we just came to have a nice little chat with Hagrid and then he had some peas that he needed some help shucking so we…so I offered to help him and Ron…happily agreed to help," Hermione admitted with a slightly guilty and embarrassed look to her as she set the peas that she had been working on down and then leaned back up against Ron.

"And Henry," Harry offered up with a sly grin as he crossed his arms across his chest and dared Ron to come up with a reason that the pair couldn't have left Henry with his grandparents.

"He's always loved Hagrid after all…," Ron reminded Harry with a tone that all that heard it knew well for it was a tone that Ron would only use when he was not telling the whole truth and trying to get whomever he was speaking with at the time to just ignore that little fact.

"True, but Hermione…did you lose your ring," Ginny replied, playing along for the fun of it, before she noticed that Hermione wasn't wearing her ring and immediately thought the worst.

"Definitely not, it's here…I just don't wear it on my finger if there's a chance of losing it," Hermione answered with a slow shaking of her head before she brushed her hands off on her dress and then delicately pulled a thin necklace out from underneath the top of her dress and looped into it was her wedding ring.

"We're not late for the party are we, we should still have a few minutes," Ron continued, as if he had either seen or heard nothing or hadn't been worried about whether Hermione had lost her wedding ring or not, before he again encircled her with his arms, giving her a soft hug.

"Not yet Ron, but your Mum was worried that you would be, said something about a big surprise that you two had," Harry countered after taking a deep breath and setting his hands down onto his sides before he noticed that Hermione had suddenly become very quiet and almost scared though he couldn't understand why.

"Oh…that…yeah, well…surprise," Hermione replied softly with a visibly nervous look to her as she tried to get up but seemed rooted to the spot before she tapped Ron on the leg and he helped her to her feet with an odd amount of effort and a strangely happy grin. It was then that Harry noticed that her face looked fuller and she appeared to be moving a bit differently. It wasn't until Harry glanced downward that he saw both of her hands on her stomach and he figured it out.

"You're pregnant," Harry exclaimed loudly in shock and surprise as he very nearly tripped over his own feet while beside him Ginny did her best not to laugh openly at her husband.

"Again…but…but I thought that you…," Ginny shot back with a slight stutter to her words and wide eyes as she struggled to come to grips with the news as she struggled to get her thoughts in order and not get ahead of herself before Hermione cut in.

"That we were going to wait a bit before adding more, yes…so did I…, but Ron…," Hermione replied a bit to warmly to be completely happy about the turn of events at first before she couldn't keep it up and began to beam with pride, the sign of a woman extremely happy about being a mother and loving that she was going to have more children before long.

"Not my fault, we'd gone to the beach and Hermione got that skimpy new…and I…," Ron blushed through his response as he shrugged his shoulders with a very brief look up at Harry and Ginny before his gaze locked firmly upon Hermione, looking her up and down as if remembering her wearing much less than she was now.

"Couldn't help himself," Hermione answered for him at first with an almost irritated scowl before she couldn't keep it up and she seemed to blossom under Ron's gaze if not outright shiver with an ever growing smile as she leaned back against him and he once again wrapped his arms around her.

"You've got some dirt on your nose, by the way, did you know," Ron whispered softly into her ear with a wide grin, before he gave her neck a quick peck, as his hands dropped down to Hermione's baby bump and set themselves there, showing no interest in moving them anywhere else.

"Mum will blow her top," Ginny happily laughed as she reached a hand up to wipe away a happy tear from her eye as Harry laid a supportive hand on her shoulder and smiled at her as he tried to keep from tearing up as well at the news, at least momentarily before the pair rushed forward and hugged Ron and Hermione.

"Hopefully not, partly why we came back…she'd have murdered us if the babies were here without her even knowing about them," Ron uneasily answered with a quick shared look with Hermione as the two could very much envision how Mrs. Weasley would react, and it was something that both were very keen to avoid.

"You're right but…wait…babies…you mean," Harry said softly with a slightly uneasy frown as he reached up and lightly scratched the back of his neck before Ron's words fully penetrated his mind and his eyes went about as wide as his mouth.

"Yeah, Madam Pomfrey just told us…guess we just needed some time to come to terms with it," Ron sheepishly answered with another hug of Hermione as the pair couldn't help but grin happily as several feet behind them Hagrid was trying not to become too emotional at the news given that Henry was beginning to squirm.

"Speaking of babies…very glad that I won't have Mum all to myself tonight," Ginny joked after a few more hugs between the two pairs with a sly glance in Harry's direction as her whole face turned as red as her hair and Hermione caught on quickly and her eyes got wet as Ron looked on in confusion.

"What," Harry nervously and awkwardly stuttered as he then swallowed hard and tried to get his brain to work slow enough that he could process fully what was actually going on and what it really meant.

"Surprise," Ginny whispered loudly while looking very excited but nervous smile as she fully turned towards Harry before she couldn't help but scream a bit as he flung himself at her and the two shared a few moments that they would remember for the rest of their lives.

END OF AFTER ACTION REPORT 5

Author's Note: Thanks again to everyone for reading and reviewing this and the other chapters. As always reviews, comments, and questions are always welcome. I still can't read Hermione with anybody but Ron and vice versa, I find it funny how people forget or overlook that Hermione is just as bad about calling other characters names and the like that she then scolds Ron for doing, like calling Pansy a cow and as thick as a concussed troll and Umbridge evil. I still love the idea of what happened with Hermione telling her parents about all that happened after she changed their memories, then how Bill explained how Ollivander came to be with him when he moved him to Aunt Muriel's house. I find it funny that Ron and the twins must have been driving their dads car during the summers for Ron to be so adept at driving it that he didn't seem to even give it a second thought, and all of that as a twelve year old along with him knowing how to pick locks the muggle way and Hermione not liking horses.

I always found it nice and interesting the amount of physical contact between Ron and Hermione in the seventh book, just that there was a lot more of it than in previous books, or seemed to be. I wish that we would have seen Hermione's house and her reaction to how she viewed the Burrow when she first went there, and how Hermione greeted Ron before each school year, as we only saw Hermione hug Harry after something bad had happened to him, otherwise she greeted him normally. I think that given how Rowling wrote romances in the books that Harry and Hermione would not have worked after fifth year given that with all of the prefect stuff taking away from the rest of the storyline it would have only been Harry and Hermione and then after Ron left in the seventh book it would have been just them again and those times would have been open to romance and either nothing would have happened until after the series ended or just in what she didn't show us.

With Ron and Hermione it played perfectly into allowing Harry to do his own thing and visit one on one with the various teachers and such, and otherwise Ron truly would have just been a sidekick of a character, which in the end makes the books a lot like Dawson's Creek, though Joey and Hermione and Pacey and Ron being the parallel's character wise but without the other romance. Glad that Rowling didn't have a romantic triangle and we fans didn't have a big team Ron versus team Harry kind of thing like Twilight. I just think that Rowling could have included a lot more romance stuff into the books without it getting in the way. Most of anything between Ron and Hermione would not have to be included besides the times that Harry saw any of it. I'm also beginning to wonder if or when they should remake the movies, though sticking closer to the books than the ones that we've already had did, as it's been closing in on twenty years since the first movie and a lot has changed so that they could do the movies better than they did.

Then again if they did I would expect a great many Harry and Hermione fans getting upset that they'd added Ron and Hermione scenes that weren't in the first movies and then they'd be surprised that those "added" scenes were actually in the books As for this chapter if I were in Ron's place then there'd be no way that I would have let Hermione go to Australia without me, not saying that she wasn't capable of rescuing her parents or couldn't do it without me but after Fred's funeral I'd think that Ron would want a chance to get out of the Burrow and support Hermione, not to mention try to figure out if they were in a real relationship or not, then not sure that Ron would have wanted to be an auror given that the job seems to be a lot like their time spent on the horcrux hunt that Ron didn't seem to enjoy very much. I think that a seventh year with the four would have been a fun time for them, something new for them all to have a year at Hogwarts and not have to worry about being attacked at every turn. And still think that Ron and Hermione should have had more kids, like five kids in total. Thank You.


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